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The Broken World
Selected by Yusef Komunyakaa
as one of five volumes published in 1996 in the National Poetry Series
"Marcus Cafagña is a poet who shies at nothing, who will
not turn away from what he sees--ordinary people struggling against, and
sometimes breaking on, the wheel of their fate. The Broken World
is a deeply humane and accomplished first book--probing, watchful, compassionate,
and necessary."
-- Edward Hirsch
"I challenge anyone to be unmoved by The Broken World. Cafagña
never gives up in these difficult, heart-rending poems." -- Jim Daniels,
editor of Letters to Contemporary American Poetry on Race
The Broken World, the powerful debut of a poet of great depth
and maturity, begins with narratives of individuals caught up in circumstance--a
distressed girl on a Detroit overpass, a boy shooting baskets at a crisis
center. By the end of the slim volume, Marcus Cafagña has led us
through the postwar New York of Jewish Holocaust survivors to his native
Michigan, where his marriage ended tragically with his wife's suicide,
a death that has come to symbolize for Cafagña the confusion and
madness of the twentieth century.
as one of five volumes published in 1996 in the National Poetry Series
"Marcus Cafagña is a poet who shies at nothing, who will
not turn away from what he sees--ordinary people struggling against, and
sometimes breaking on, the wheel of their fate. The Broken World
is a deeply humane and accomplished first book--probing, watchful, compassionate,
and necessary."
-- Edward Hirsch
"I challenge anyone to be unmoved by The Broken World. Cafagña
never gives up in these difficult, heart-rending poems." -- Jim Daniels,
editor of Letters to Contemporary American Poetry on Race
The Broken World, the powerful debut of a poet of great depth
and maturity, begins with narratives of individuals caught up in circumstance--a
distressed girl on a Detroit overpass, a boy shooting baskets at a crisis
center. By the end of the slim volume, Marcus Cafagña has led us
through the postwar New York of Jewish Holocaust survivors to his native
Michigan, where his marriage ended tragically with his wife's suicide,
a death that has come to symbolize for Cafagña the confusion and
madness of the twentieth century.
- GenresPoetry
80 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1996
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 12, 2016
We'd hardly know it:
our noisy cars bypassing all the signs
to Detroit, people who jump
from heights like this. We approach
and she hurls a ball off the bridge
that suddenly catches wind and unfurls
wings red as a cardinal. And it's her
bandanna somersaulting six lanes
of exhaust, flag of a forgotten
country tossed like a life
to the horizon in the rearview,
shrinking her colors
out of sight.
Having just finished Mary Oliver's Thirst while out on a walk this afternoon, I continued with The Broken World which I had also brought with me. This book managed to evoke the exact opposite sensations in me that Thirst delivered, which, I believe to be the point, and the overarching message of this collection.
Cafagña's The Broken World is gritty, bleak, and sorrowful; it's the blending of a loss of innocence, terrible grief, urban claustrophobia, trauma, and stream of consciousness. It attempts to express a certain beauty in both moments overlooked, and in the tenacity of those who have suffered a great deal and yet have the courage to rise again the next day. It captures an artful interpretation in the mundane, and gives voice to the perimeter of heartache that exists within lives struggling with a myriad of miserable conditions.
In many ways, The Broken World is a sort of companion piece to Thirst. Just as Mary Oliver's lament over the death of her partner is a major driving factor for her 'Thirst', Cafagña's experiences with grief and loss rip from him agonies which he's captured and put into prose. He echoes the pain, but unfortunately none of the hope. There is poetry about death, cancer, domestic abuse, drug use, and suicide; it's a dialogue between Cafagña and the reader as he explains the depravity that he's witnessed and experienced. Without doubt, the most powerful piece in the collection is 'All the Bells', a nine part poem about the loss of his wife due to suicide.
There is some very powerful poetry included in this collection, and Cafagña's voice is strong, though the effect is a dark one, and it will linger with you afterwards. That is probably this collection's greatest strength, and its overpowering weakness; it just drains you, and leaves you empty. It's the author's mourning cry, and it is very effective. I would recommend The Broken World only to a specific crowd for just that reason: It is poetry written as a release, as a chronicle of darkness in an often time heartless and seemingly unfeeling world. It elicits a feeling of stark reality in which we all realize that the world in which we live is not the one that was meant for us, and we must all bear the burden of that bitter reality.
In truth I envied her
secret wound, knowledge of a horror
annihilating the language
of lies, manicured lawns, corduroy
and wool of my youth
or the cockroach that paused
on the drainboard minutes
before her death,
How I wanted to tear sheets
off tables and chairs
pry nailed windows open and yell
her name across Ocean Avenue,
scatter over win the bag
of nickels tied at her waist-
her only escape
on the subways of New York
our noisy cars bypassing all the signs
to Detroit, people who jump
from heights like this. We approach
and she hurls a ball off the bridge
that suddenly catches wind and unfurls
wings red as a cardinal. And it's her
bandanna somersaulting six lanes
of exhaust, flag of a forgotten
country tossed like a life
to the horizon in the rearview,
shrinking her colors
out of sight.
Having just finished Mary Oliver's Thirst while out on a walk this afternoon, I continued with The Broken World which I had also brought with me. This book managed to evoke the exact opposite sensations in me that Thirst delivered, which, I believe to be the point, and the overarching message of this collection.
Cafagña's The Broken World is gritty, bleak, and sorrowful; it's the blending of a loss of innocence, terrible grief, urban claustrophobia, trauma, and stream of consciousness. It attempts to express a certain beauty in both moments overlooked, and in the tenacity of those who have suffered a great deal and yet have the courage to rise again the next day. It captures an artful interpretation in the mundane, and gives voice to the perimeter of heartache that exists within lives struggling with a myriad of miserable conditions.
In many ways, The Broken World is a sort of companion piece to Thirst. Just as Mary Oliver's lament over the death of her partner is a major driving factor for her 'Thirst', Cafagña's experiences with grief and loss rip from him agonies which he's captured and put into prose. He echoes the pain, but unfortunately none of the hope. There is poetry about death, cancer, domestic abuse, drug use, and suicide; it's a dialogue between Cafagña and the reader as he explains the depravity that he's witnessed and experienced. Without doubt, the most powerful piece in the collection is 'All the Bells', a nine part poem about the loss of his wife due to suicide.
There is some very powerful poetry included in this collection, and Cafagña's voice is strong, though the effect is a dark one, and it will linger with you afterwards. That is probably this collection's greatest strength, and its overpowering weakness; it just drains you, and leaves you empty. It's the author's mourning cry, and it is very effective. I would recommend The Broken World only to a specific crowd for just that reason: It is poetry written as a release, as a chronicle of darkness in an often time heartless and seemingly unfeeling world. It elicits a feeling of stark reality in which we all realize that the world in which we live is not the one that was meant for us, and we must all bear the burden of that bitter reality.
In truth I envied her
secret wound, knowledge of a horror
annihilating the language
of lies, manicured lawns, corduroy
and wool of my youth
or the cockroach that paused
on the drainboard minutes
before her death,
How I wanted to tear sheets
off tables and chairs
pry nailed windows open and yell
her name across Ocean Avenue,
scatter over win the bag
of nickels tied at her waist-
her only escape
on the subways of New York
December 2, 2020
Deeply moving. This poetry collection is about people trying to navigate the world after trauma and who suffer from mental illness. I'm certain I will have to read this collection numerous times to really understand everything being conveyed.
Some of the poems which really stuck out to me were about Aunt Sarah, such as Dybbuks, June Bugs, Aunt Sarah (1903-81).
Some of the poems which really stuck out to me were about Aunt Sarah, such as Dybbuks, June Bugs, Aunt Sarah (1903-81).
July 14, 2009
A friend from my hometown in Michigan told me that a classmate (didn't really know him) had become a poet. So I picked up his book out of curiosity. I loved this books of poems. In particular there is a poem about the suicide of his wife that nearly had me in tears. The tension between something so awful and the beauty of the poem was very powerful.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews