Wunderkammer

by Cynthia Cruz

Within the world of Wunderkammer, or “cabinet of curiosities,” Cynthia Cruz archives the ruinous, the sparkling, the traumatic, and the decadent. These poems, through sensuous impressions, mimic what it’s like to wake from a dream only to realize you are still inside the dream. We encounter gluttony pinned against starvation—“ceiling high cream cakes, / I ran twelve miles in my ballet leotard” — and the glamorous mixed with the grotesque —“I follow a sequin / Thread of dead things.” Through “brutal music,” Wunderkammer grips at the edges of memory and chaos; these poems have “found the kill / And entered it.”

“Her linguistic palette is glittering and sharp, her vision hallucinogenic and unflinching.”
—Dana Levin

“These dark and commanding poems touch the crisis that lies at the very edge of perception. Their crystalline, Baudelairean vision will haunt, trouble, and astonish you.”
—Elizabeth Willis

“Cruz exposes that glorious hell that is having a history, having a body, remembering everything and trying to make something good of it. She makes something brilliant of it: fearless close-to-the-bone truthtelling and a triumphant work of art.”
—Brenda Shaughnessy

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 2014

About the author

Cynthia Cruz is the author of Ruin (Alice James Books) as well as The Glimmering Room, Wunderkammer and How the End Begins (all from Four Way Books). She is the recipient of fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and a Hodder Fellowship. An essayist and art writer, her first collection of essays, Notes Toward a New Language is forthcoming. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and is currently a doctoral student in Germanic Language and Literature.

Reviews

[E H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I might have given this five stars if it were a chapbook. There were some really beautiful poems in here, and several lines that made me read them again out loud, they were so good. But in so many other lines she just seemed to be rattling off the same nouns or adjectives she'd already used - it's all cream cakes and doom and glitter. It disappointed me because I can tell she is incredibly talented with language and it could have been much better.

[Erica Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who else writes with the ferocity and precision of Cynthia Cruz? This is a marvelous collection.

[Eli Tubbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don't come by poetry better than this. Truly a magical read. Cynthia Cruz is just fantastic. Read this collection and her others.

[e · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite of Cruz’s. It’s uncanny, magical, dreamy, lush, haunting, beautiful, terrifying. A true “cabinet of curiosities”.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As beautiful and haunting as The Glimmering Room, but perhaps a more tightly bound narrative, content with each poem bearing the yolk of the narrative whole within its small lines and within the larger arc. Still as precise and daring.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my kind of poetry: weird, polyglottal, slightly scary, fiercely intelligent, beautiful. I loved it so much I'm buying all of Ms. Cruz's other books!

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pop culture and concrete objects really shape the world of this book. It's a good study in mood and craft.

[Ivana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This woman is a mad poetic genius!

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lush & dreamy favorite

[Rowan Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

was gifted to me by a professor and has become a major influence for my own writing

[Holly Grigalunas]

Hallucinogenic, glamorous, dark

[Queer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If anyone can overuse the words diamond and palanquin and still pull off this psychopomp dream, it's Cynthia Cruz. Superb.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A haunting series of poems from distressed speakers. Plenty of dissonant music here, making for a riveting but also disturbing read.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

Best poems are "Wunderkammer" and "Porcelain Pillow in the Form of a Theater".

[John Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic collection.