Publication of a poet’s “New & Selected” is always an occasion to read that poet’s work in some breadth, if not also in depth. Having read and much-admired Cording’s hybrid prose memoir and poetry book, In an Unwalled City, and having heard him read from his earlier collections, I was especially pleased to learn that What’s Possible: New & Selected Poems was launching May 12, 2026.*
A compilation of nearly two dozen new poems that already have appeared in a number of prestigious literary magazines and journals and selections of work from nine earlier published collections, What’s Possible is a showcase of stellar writing by a poet who Sydney Lea, author of the book’s Foreword, deems “one of the finest in America.”**
The book’s arrangement places 23 new poems, which are divided into four, untitled sections, at the front. The 105 selections from other books follow, beginning with Cording’s first, the 1987 volume Life-List, and ending with the 2019 collection Without My Asking.*…