Broken Cup: Poems

Broken Cup brings breathtaking eloquence to what Margaret Gibson describes as “traveling the Way of Alzheimer’s” with her husband, poet David McKain. After his initial and tentative diagnosis, Gibson suspended her writing for two years; but then poetry returned, and the creative process became the lightning rod that grounded her and presented a path forward. The poems in Broken Cup bear witness to how Alzheimer’s erodes memory and cognitive function, but they never forget to see what is present and to ask what may remain of the self.

Moving and unflinchingly honest in the acknowledgment of pain, frustration, and grief, the poems uncover, time and time again, the grace of abiding love. Gibson gives heart as well as voice to an experience that is deeply personal, yet shared by all too many.