August 8, 2002

Dear Readers:  Most of you probably know a bit of the history behind the publication of my novel The Lake Poet.  I formed my own publishing company, Thirteenth Angel Press, and published my own book, rather than go through years of trying to connect with a mainstream publisher, only to lose creative control of my work.  When I decided to do this, I didn't have the slightest notion of how to go about self-publishing, but I immersed myself in learning about it, and it has turned out to be a very successful venture, and also the right thing to do for The Lake Poet.

If you have read the book, then you are also aware of the wonderful poem that opens The Lake Poet - "The Thirteenth Angel" by Joseph T. Cox.  I am proud to announce this week that Joe's poetry collection Garden's Close is now available, through Thirteenth Angel Press.  Joe and I (and our talented book designer Chris Crosby) worked very hard on his book, and I think it truly is a strong and moving collection of Joe's poetry.  Below I have copied the back cover material from Garden's Close, which includes comments from poets Richard Wilbur, Richard A. Hawley, and W. D. Ehrhart.  (Also a brief bio that will introduce you to Joe.)  Enjoy!

Joseph Cox's poems are full of subtle words and phrases which repay attention - as when the first brief poem of this collection, "Nesting," gradually releases all that it has to say of the instinctive and enduring in man and nature.  Garden's Close is a varied book, offering poems of love and desire, but also of the "schemeless mutilation" of war, and giving us also such keen evocations of mood and place as "Subterranean Umbra."  One of the motifs which bind the whole book together is that of human aloneness; the theme is stated in various keys, and in one delightful poem about Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson's back porch door, it becomes pure comedy.    -  Richard Wilbur

Joseph Cox's poems are magisterial in their quiet assurance and deft, lovely imagery.  Just below their naturalistic surface, these poems glow with a special intensity, revealing the poet's remarkable gifts for seeing and remembering.  Garden's Close is a gorgeous book.   -  Richard A. Hawley

These poems read as if they have traveled through many lives and many worlds to reach the pages of Garden's Close, all the while accumulating wisdom and grace, sweetness and strength.  From wintergreen roots surrendering "carpets of scent" to a horse-drawn cart "freighting dead weight in a deadly time" to "sudden thoughts like lightning strikes," Joseph Cox has created a quiet marvel.    -  W. D. Ehrhart

Joseph T. Cox, Ph.D., is the author of The Written Wars: American War Prose Through the Civil War published by Archon Books.  He is currently the Headmaster of the Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania.  A thirty-year United States Army veteran, Cox commanded from the platoon to battalion level in the 5th Infantry Division, the 82nd Airborne Division, and the 101st Airborne Division, and served as an Academy Professor at The United States Military Academy at West Point.