Breaking up, poems contain satisfaction (12)
I believe the answer is:
compensation
'satisfaction' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'breaking up poems contain' is the wordplay.
'breaking up' indicates an anagram.
'poems'+'contain'='poemscontain'
'poemscontain' is an anagram of 'COMPENSATION'.
(Other definitions for compensation that I've seen before include "Award for, eg, injury" , "cash for injury" , "An award in recognition of a loss" , "Adjustment" , "Amends" .)