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Description:
Sandy Coomer’s new book, The Broken Places, addresses a broken world in moving verse.
As Ernest Hemingway explained, “the world breaks everyone.” The same sentiment can be seen in this poetic journey of observation, reflection, loss, and grief, alongside a deep understanding of resiliency and fortitude. This collection brings you face-to-face with the tribulations of society and shares an honest revelation of personal hardships. Within these pages, you will confront the broken places of human existence fiercely and dare to stand in defiance, while also recognizing what is gained from such an encounter. Grouped into five sections – Broken: World, Broken: Relationship, Broken: Identity, Broken: Body, Broken: Heart – these poems delve into topics such as school shootings, suicide, immigration, relationships, domestic violence, gender equality, body image, motherhood, aging, illness, death, and grief. Within this wide circumference of subjects there is an intimate reckoning with each issue and an unwavering testimony to the rest of Hemingway’s words, “and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” Coomer addresses the realities of being human, carrying the truth of struggle and pain in the same hands that carry courage and forgiveness. Despite the turbulence of this world, the overarching message of this book is one of perseverance and hope; it is a belief that the human spirit can rise beyond the broken places to claim the beautiful spaces that wait for all of us.
Praise for The Broken Places:
Sandy Coomer’s second full-length collection of poems is a cataloguing of broken moments within relationships, identity, the body, and the world. She writes, “Is it anyone’s fault / this world has teeth?” These poems skip across the human condition like a stone on water, touching relatable and specific moments with vivid imagery: “This is not rare & I am not / a spectacle carrying grief this way, over my shoulder, though it spills / thick & red down my back.” From death and mourning to gardens and growth, Coomer gives us poems that reveal, make connections, and remind us we are human.
–Trish Hopkinson, author of Footnote
“If freedom is an illusion, a mirage, a myth, / then this poem is a mirror, a surrender,” writes Sandy Coomer in The Broken Places, a collection that acts as both a mirror for our pain points and a surrender to revelations about ways light resides nested in dark, breakdown accompanies breakthrough, and nature’s radiance salves. With potent imagery, lyrical lines, and bold suppositions, Coomer traverses coming of age, the tragedy of violence, motherhood, mother loss, and the intrusions of illness to explore redemption. Ekphrastic poems featuring Klimt and Degas and poems using villanelle and mirror line structures round out this unflinching collection.
–Tania Pryputniewicz, author of November Butterfly
Like all visionaries, Sandy Spencer Coomer takes readers with her on a journey from darkness to light. In the poem “Begonia,” the poet writes “You kneel in the drifting shade/ and try to understand yourself, which means to understand humanity.” Sandy Coomer looks clear-eyed at complex experience—school shootings, racism, sexual misconduct—and doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge that “We are dangerous together.” This beautifully orchestrated book gives voice to humanity’s “wildest part” and shows readers how to meet “the hard, blunt face of its blooming.” Finally, these poems offer us the courage to keep faith with ourselves: “No matter what you think about our chances/let morning find us iridescent and shimmering.”
–Katherine Smith, author of Woman Alone on the Mountain
Theme Song for The Broken Places:
“Faith Enough” by Jars of Clay, Album: Who We Are Instead, 2003
Lyrics:
The ice is thin enough for walkin’
The rope is worn enough to climb
My throat is dry enough for talkin’
The world is crumblin’ but I know why
The world is crumblin’ but I know why
The storm is wild enough for sailing
The bridge is weak enough to cross
This body frail enough for fighting
I’m home enough to know I’m lost
Home enough to know I’m lost
It’s just enough to be strong
In the broken places, in the broken places
It’s just enough to be strong
Should the world rely on faith tonight
The land unfit enough for planting
Barren enough to conceive
Poor enough to gain the treasure
Enough a cynic to believe
Enough a cynic to believe
Confused enough to know direction
The sun eclipsed enough to shine
Be still enough to finally tremble
And see enough to know I’m blind
And see enough to know I’m blind
It’s just enough to be strong
In the broken places, in the broken places
It’s just enough to be strong
Should the world rely on faith tonight