Reflections from a Broken Mirror: Poems about Caymanian Society

Describing himself as a ‘self-imposed griot and poet’, J.A. Roy Bodden turns to the medium of verse to utter an anguished cry for his beloved Cayman Islands. The metaphoric ‘broken mirror’ in the title of this collection of poetry represents a Caymanian society that is fractured and rudderless, and whose birthright has been appropriated by foreigners, relegating the poet and his fellow Caymanians to being mere ‘natives’. Bodden’s transition to the medium of verse is the continuation of a journey that began with his earlier exploration of Caymanian society’s attempt to grapple with issues of settlement, colonialism, prejudice, rapid economic growth, modernity and globalization. His exposure of the sordid underbelly of Caymanian politics based on its system of patronage was the next step in that journey. All of these and much more are here captured  and rendered in passionate verse.

In Reflections from a Broken Mirror, Bodden cleverly combines these earlier explorations in a poet’s lament declaring:
The stories I tell…the poems I write
…are no artificial stuff…no comforting illusions
He uses metaphor, vivid imagery and  allegory to good effect, as in the images of Cayman as a virgin who has been despoiled by a clever suitor or the foreigner in the form of a coiling python who is plotting to own Cayman or the native Caymanian who is reduced to facelessness among the hordes of visitors on cruise ship day. But Bodden is not just a gloomy Cassandra; he regales in the skills, courage and proud traditions of the Cayman Islands seamen of old; in the original inhabitants who tamed the land and made the Islands a desirable prize. And at the end, the poems offer a vision of  hope and the possibility for redemption and rejuvenation.

J.A. Roy Bodden is an educator and cultural historian.He is currently President of the University College of the Cayman Islands (UCCI). His published works are The Cayman Islands in Transition: The Politics, History and Sociology of a Changing Society (Ian Randle Publishers 2007); Stories My Grandfather Never Told Me (CNCF 2007); Patronage, Personalities and Parties: Caymanian Politics From 1950–2000 (Ian Randle Publishers 2010); A Gathering of Old Men (Ian Randle Publishers 2012).