“A masterful wordsmith tells it like it was, like it is, and like it ought to be. Fox’s everlasting themes of time, nature, familial bonds, and existence are elegantly folded into each piece. His words are sharp, filled with deeply telling imagery and sentimentality. Fox doesn’t just write of people and places, he takes you there, and for just a moment you become a part of his life. Once I was born to live is a striking body of work that is written with the temerity of legacy.”
~ Renuka Raghavan, Nothing Resplendent Lives Here
Once I was born to live
“This powerful new collection by Richard Fox is moving and delightful. To quote his Uncle Louie, ‘You earned your ribeye, kid!’”
~ Lori Desrosiers, Keeping Planes in the Air
“Richard Fox, like us all was ‘born to live’ but this collection of his living, breathing poetry is born to live on your bookshelves forever, to be removed, breathed upon, and celebrated.”
~ Timothy Gager, 2020 Poems
“How I love the universe that Richard Fox invites me to visit: Zayde, Uncle Louie, Cassie, Beeb, Bekah. I know them all. And the friends and fellow travelers in the infusion rooms, the hospice wards. Family. ‘Spectators soothe the living.’ Richard Fox’s book Once I was born to live is about love. ‘I love you,’ he writes. Thank you, Richard, for your gift of love.”
~ Jennifer Martelli, Queen of Queens
“Richard Fox travels to the heart of living in Once I was born to live. His poems truly are a ‘deft landing,’ a testament to his writing. He knows how to deliver. His honesty, a force that grabs, and doesn’t let go.”
~ Gloria Mindock, editor of Červená Barva Press
“These poems sing of the subtle treasures and piercing bittersweetness of human existence. You’ll long for more time, more life, more poetry, after reading this beautiful book.”
~ Chloe McFeters, C is for Courage, Still, But Not Silent, and Journey into Poetry
“The peal of chimes behind his words is ever-present in the worlds he creates unfolding on the page.”
~ Susan Isla Tepper, What Drives Men
“Being Jewish I delighted in this cornucopia of ethnic food, the enigma wrapped in a mystery of a Jewish family, and remembered my own nana, eccentric uncles, and that long lost connection to an old world that informs the new.”
~ Doug Holder, Co-President of the New England Poetry Club