What Binds Us To This World

Poetry. "In one of the inscriptions to Robert Cording's robust and affecting second collection, St. Paul asserts that 'if we hope for what we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.' WHAT BILNDS US TO THIS WORLD is a sustained chronicle of such hope and such patience (in all the etymological resonances of that word). Cording's fondest wishes extend not only to the tangible but to the invisible; moreover - unlike many a contemporary poet's - they supersede the bounds of hungry ego. His most moving testimony is presented on behalf of others, most notably family and friends. Here is a man who still believes in serial immortality, the notion that one's best influences survive in the characters of loved ones, which is also to say, in Cording's case, in all hid strong poems. Yet there is no smugness or sanctimony in this writer's posture: he is sharp and self-skeptical enough to put his sincerest convictions on permanent trial, one day's assurance ceding to the awkwardness of the next. Early on, Cording confesses, 'I'm almost ashamed of my delight.' We can be grateful for that almost, because WHAT BINDS US TO THIS WORLD suggests the availability of delight, a rarely made case in our time, while its modesty demands of the author that he everywhere question delight's grounds. The result is a collection charged - to use the apt word - with grace" -Sydney Lea