Cole has published four books of poetry: Rift (Station Hill), Hymns & Qualms (Sheep Meadow Press), Things on Which I've Stumbled (New Directions), and What Is Doubled: Poems 1981-1989 (Shearsman Books).

Among his translations from contemporary Hebrew and Arabic poetry and fiction are Love & Selected Poems of Aharon Shabtai (Sheep Meadow), J’Accuse, by Aharon Shabtai (New Directions), and So What: New & Selected Poems, 1971-2005 by Taha Muhammad Ali (Copper Canyon Press).

Cole has received numerous awards for his work, including fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and the 1998 Modern Language Association Translation Award. J’Accuse received the 2004 PEN-America Award for Poetry in Translation.