Passing Cars by Corey D. Cook
Published by Maverick Duck Press

Review by A.R. Williams, PhD

Corey D. Cook’s Passing Cars is a poetry collection that quietly navigates resilience, the natural world, and the emotional weight of ordinary moments. Rooted in New England landscapes, these poems reflect themes of loss, survival, love, and memory with a deep sense of place and purpose.

Cook’s characteristic style—spare, vivid, and deeply evocative—shines throughout. His economical language distills complex emotions into deceptively simple images that linger. In “The Goldenrod,” a neglected garden plant becomes a meditation on devotion and endurance, its yellow blooms compared to “streaks of crackling fireworks.” “Resurrecting Roadkill” uses the intact body of a young fox to explore the tension between beauty and tragedy, life and death. These poems transform the overlooked into something deeply resonant.

What unites the collection is its ability to make the personal universal. In “Infertile,” grief over unrealized parenthood is poignantly conveyed through images of empty bedrooms and a chicken coop teeming with life. Similarly, “Depression” captures mental health struggles through the haunting image of a robin striking a glass pane, while “Stretch of 90 Degree Weather” mirrors life’s stagnation in the parched, oppressive heat of summer.

Passing Cars balances immediacy with depth, grounding its emotional weight in tangible details while reflecting on impermanence and wonder. Cook’s strength lies in elevating the quiet moments of life, offering fresh insights on grief, connection, and endurance. It’s a collection that stays with you, its simplicity revealing new layers with each revisit.

For those new to Cook’s work, Passing Cars is an ideal introduction. Yet, Cook’s work extends far beyond the pages of Passing Cars. For those unfamiliar with Cook’s work, I urge them to seek out his earlier chapbooks and his new collection of haiku and senryu published with Bottlecap Press (currently en route to my mailbox).

Overall, Cook demonstrates a rare ability to distill life’s complexities into moments of startling simplicity, seamlessly balancing the deeply personal with the universally relatable—a talent he displays masterfully in Passing Cars.

Corey D. Cook’s eighth chapbook, heads held low, was just published by Bottlecap Press. His other most recent collections are: Passing Cars (Maverick Duck Press), Junk Drawer (Finishing Line Press), and The Weight of Shadows (Finishing Line Press). Corey has had over 300 poems published in print and online magazines since 2004. His poems have appeared in Bloodroot Literary Magazine, Boston Literary Magazine, Chiron Review, Freshwater Literary Journal, Muddy River Poetry Review, Naugatuck River Review, Nixes Mate Review, Northern New England Review, ONE ART, South Florida Poetry Journal, and Star 82 Review. Corey works at a hospital in New Hampshire and lives in East Thetford, Vermont.