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Simplicity, chaos and commotion in 'Kamikaze'
By Erik Opsal
Library Communications
Posted 3/13/2008
MADISON, Wis. – Cathryn Cofell traces the optimism of youth to the gloom and uncertainty of middle age in the latest Parallel Press chapbook Kamikaze Commotion.
Using a range of simple and chaotic styles and verse, the 26-poem collection describes life, religion and the emptiness and senselessness of death. Beginning in childhood, Cofell weaves tales of green bean soup and riding in a go-cart together with ease, often using religion as a common thread.
The poem “Stuck” describes the awe and sheepishness a young child can feel in the face of God. Cofell writes: “At the very least, I was sure old father what’s-his-name would come out / of that confessional, that his knees would come up and the light / would go out and that big brown door would open, that he’d say / what in God’s name have you done now Cathryn?”
Cofell struggles to retain that optimism of youth when faced with a friend’s suicide, putting the harsh realities of life and death on full display. In “Postmortem” she writes: “For a $1.65 a line you can say / anything you want about the dead— / how he had a long list of friends, / a brilliant career as an explorer, / anything except the truth.”
Faced with this ultimate truth, Cofell’s torments turn inward as she longs for that sanguinity of her childhood. In “Ghost Ship” Cofell writes: “Then you came back. Now, here I am / again, thinking of the heaven / I prayed to as a girl on my knees, / wondering what I did to get so far / from that nightdress, / those folded hands, / those nights of unwavering faith.”
Cofell, who lives in Appleton, has assumed many roles as a passionate advocate for the arts in Wisconsin. She’s served as advisor to the governor for the creation of a state poet laureate, as founding chair of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission and on the board of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. She has four previous chapbooks—Her Religion, Tiny Little Crushes, Roadkill and Sweet Curdle—and is the recipient of two Pushcart Prize nominations. Cofell’s work can be found in Prairie Schooner, Laurel Review, Phoebe, MARGIE, Slipstream, Nerve Cowboy and many others.
The Parallel Press is an imprint of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. Kamikaze Commotion is its 53rd chapbook. For more information, visit http://parallelpress.library.wisc.edu/chapbooks/poetry.
Orders may be sent to:
The Parallel Press
372 Memorial Library
728 State Street
Madison, WI 53706
Phone: (608) 262-2600
A selection from “God vs. Jetta”:
Will that German engineering
get me to you
on the way to your death
faster than prayer?
You, too, were once a strong German machine—
no Hitler youth, no tin can,
in full chug through days at the mill
and nights at the tavern,
now a thin rope in this crazy tug-of-war
between my little white car
and your fickle white god.
I am Godiva, naked on the back of this beast.
He invents snakes and sin
and has a wicked sense of humor,
but I’ve got Bob Marley on
and a full tank of gas.
You, meanwhile, Columbus,
sea legs suspended over the edge of this map.
So many miles behind and between.
Will the Jetta know when we’ve lost?
Will the sky blister like an old Bible movie,
the road turn to sparrow? Maybe the engine
will fail, or we’ll squeal into the lot
just as your heart monitor begins to hum.
Overhead, will I hear laughter?
The chafe or raw hands.
