What Holds by Dina E. Cox
Reviewed by Bryn Robinson
they are just ordinary poems, the soft underbelly of all the passions that comprise twenty-four hours—you pick the day;
In starting What Holds thusly, Dina Cox provides a fitting entrance into a collection that is anchored in the accumulated little observations and moments that provide chiaroscuro to life — the spaces arguably where poetry as an art form takes its deepest breaths.
Of course, this attention to detail isn’t solely spent on “ten thousand drops” that “cling to empty branches/tremulous yet solid…” (imagery that particularly and immediately resonates with anyone also from Saint John). While she does beautifully elevate the details we often miss in the everyday, such as receding fog in a small East Coast city, she also draws our focus to more weighty moments (even when that seems an impossible task, e.g., likening a bald head post-chemo to “deep snow” and that sometimes what gets us through the winter is “knowing grass will grow again”). Two especially standing out to this reader: Those highlighted in Arras Memorial, France, where she observes how flesh and blood are reduced to “a cold name/on a stone wall…” (before then struggling to muster up a smile for a vacation snap); and — in perhaps one of my favourites of the collection — those in His Address Book, where she plainly yet painfully documents a father’s aging by the increasingly shaky handwriting and names being crossed out over the seasons.
Cox also demonstrates a reverence for the creative process. There are careful choices made as layers (and emotions) are placed down by brush stroke or type, but these are also, rarely, the “perfect words/on paper napkins”. Craftsmanship takes work, and it is clear that she is a person who deeply appreciates others’ expression by her consideration of their processes and her interpretations of their creations.
Each new application
alters the painting, and he knows
he must work carefully, lest he lose
forever what’s underlying ...Yet, while Cox writes the below in response to a still life of apples in a painted scene (apples who morph into desired ingenues posing for an artist), she is also showing her hand at a deeper intention of this second collection: To take her own memories and turn them over in her hands in re-exploration. This seems to be a risky venture, but worthwhile, as the physical things - from cable ferries linking farmlands to grandparents who till those fields - can be lost over time, without leaving (physically) “even a thin thread left to cling to”. Gently, though, lest she, too, lose in the retelling the underlying emotion that gives them meaning.
She takes it further, remarking at one point that she got to sit “a long while, wondering/if the dead might know/when they are held/in such remembrance…” — a point of low-key jealousy for this reader, as it was in response to picking up a signed copy of Bread, Wine, and Salt at an auction.)
But, then again, are they truly lost?
even winter
can’t destroy what earth
treasures
clasping to its breast
memories of foreverDina Cox asks how, “without pictures/how might anyone keep a person/alive?” But she knows. And while the moments that she focuses on in her poems are, indeed, “just ordinary”, in concentrating on mundane slices of time, What Holds celebrates the layers behind what we see on the surface, as the necessary magic that gives life to a lifetime.
About the Author
Maritime-grown Dina E. Cox is a writer of lyric and haiku poetry, a musician, an occasional freelancer, and grandmother to thirteen. Her poetry has been published in a variety of journals and anthologies in Canada, the U.S., Ireland, and Bulgaria. One of her haiku won the Betty Drevniok Award, the premier Canadian award for haiku in English. What Holds is Dina’s second collection of poetry. She lives in Unionville, Ontario.
About the Reviewer
Bryn Robinson (she/her) lives in New Brunswick, Canada, where she uses her PhD in experimental psychology to support mental health programming in the province. She prefers contemporary fiction, narrative non-fiction, graphic novels and poetry that is emotional, reflective, and if it can do it with humour, all the better. Bryn also writes on Campfire Notebook, where she regularly features her original poetry, photography, and other art. When not reading, she’s searching for birds in the New Brunswick forests and seascapes, camera in hand.
Book Details
Publisher : Aeolus House (September, 2025)
Contact & Ordering Information: info@aeolushouse.com
Language : English
Paperback : 96 pages
ISBN : 9781987872781