Growth

If the poet's job is to provide a reflection of an entire world in a single teardrop, Karin Cox's haunting anthology, "Growth," does so admirably.

This collection of her finest poems—some previously published in anthologies around the world, others new; some rhyming, some free form—delivers beautiful sentiments, melancholy moments and some delightfully lyrical figurative language, all the while charting the poet's personal growth over several years.

While introspective, Karin's work avoids self-obsession by interspersing political and broader global themes with the personal. What results is a whimsical anthology that brings to mind the challenges of just being human and fitting into a world that sometimes feels like a tight squeeze.

A must-read for lovers of the English language and a wonderful gift for poetry aficionados, "Growth" will continue to bloom in the reader's mind long after the last page has been turned.