The Broken World: Poems

By Marcus Cafagna

Selected by Yusef Komunyakaa
as one of five volumes published in 1996 in the National Poetry Series
"Marcus Cafag a 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. Cafag a
never gives up in these difficult, heart-rending poems." -- Jim Daniels,
editor of Letters to America: 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 Cafag a 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 Cafag a the confusion and
madness of the twentieth century.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0252065506
• ISBN13: 9780252065507
• Release Date: June 1996
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Laying Down The Line

Cafagna's reputation may not yet be commensurate with his talent and skill, but the ol' boy can lay down the line with the best of them. I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading more from him.

Praise for the poet

Have not read this book but will soon do so... the reason I came to this page was to read what others had to say about it because I absolutely loved (was shaken up...like only a good poet can do!) his poem, Gloomy Sunday, which I read at http://www.ralphmag.org/AR/cafagna.html Phew.. powerful stuff. Definitely r need to read more of Cafagna

breathtaking

Normally I am not much of a reader of poetry. However, no matter how many times I read this book or any other of Mr. Cafagna's poetry, each reading is as fresh as the first time. It touches me on every level and every poem brings me into a reality just as concrete and vivid as the air around me... And yet it never reads the same way twice, because of its complexity and depth. HIGHLY recommend this.

an intense journey, rich with pain and beauty.

I fell in love with this book from the first time I read just a few lines of "All The Bells." Cafagna's rich, dazzling images and taught, quick lines sing and break apart into impossible beauty. The poems that stand out most to me are "All The Bells," a brutal and intensely human account of his wife's suicide, and the incredible, haunting "The Impossible Line," dedicated to Cafagna's deceased wife. I recommend The Broken World most highly.