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Given
the ongoing turmoil
around government
support for the arts
and humanities and the
Library of Congress in
particular, the
announcement of Arthur
Sze’s appointment
as U.S. Poet Laureate
is particularly
welcome. Those of us
who write—and
read—poetry have
been particularly
concerned about the
future of the position
after the summary (and
probably illegal)
firing of former LOC
Director Dr. Carla
Hayden. Sze’s
taking this position is
thus very heartening
for poetry lovers.
In addition to his many
accomplishments in
poetry, Sze is the
first Asian-American to
serve as Poet Laureate
(formerly Poetry
Consultant to the
Library of Congress,
Laureate was added to
the title in 1986).
Born in 1950 in New
York City, a second
generation
Chinese-American, he is
the author of twelve
volumes of poetry and
has taught in a number
of institutions. In
speaking of his
appointment as
Laureate, he expressed
a particular desire to
promote poetry in
translation, something
of a departure from
previous
Laureates’ focus.
https://tinyurl.com/23khm3mb
I have not read
deeply in Arthur
Sze’s work
myself, so this
introduction is as much
for my own
self-education as well
as the edification of
readers.
In “At the
Equinox,” Sze
pulls us immediately
into the scene with
both sharp images and a
nod to the metaphysical:
“The tide ebbs and reveals orange and purple sea stars.
I have no theory of radiance,/
but after rain evaporates
off pine needles, the needles glisten.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/160592/at-the-equinox
“First Snow” similarly creates a vivid picture of a winter day:
“A rabbit has
stopped on the gravel
driveway:// imbibing
the silence,/you stare
at spruce needles://
there's no sound of a leaf blower,/no sign of a black bear.”
The poem slowly
transitions into a more
philosophical vein
still using images to
lead the reader
on:
“you think you
own a car, a
house,/this
blue-zigzagged shirt,
but you just borrow
these
things…./you
possess nothing./Snow
melts into a pool of
clear water;/and, in
this
stillness,/starlight
behind daylight
wherever you
gaze.”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/152053/first-snow-5e0e478bd0a75
This movement from the
particular to the
broader implications is
characteristic of
Sze’s poetry, as
in “Rock Paper
Scissors”:
Midnight snow swirls in
the
courtyard—/you
wake and mark the
steel-gray light of
dawn,// the rhythm
in your/hands of
scissors cutting
paper;// you pull a
blade against
ribbon….//you
consider how paper
wraps rock,/scissors
snips paper,//how this
game embodies the
evolution/of bacteria
and
antibiotic….”
https://poets.org/poem/rock-paper-scissors
The careful mixture of
concrete and abstract
imagery, often against
a seasonal backdrop,
has a distinctly Asian
quality, unsurprising
given the poet’s
heritage and his
experience in
translating Chinese
poetry. A fine example
is his translation of a
poem by Su Tung-Po, a
poet of China’s
Song era (10th century
CE), “Spring Night”:
“Spring night: one-quarter of an hour
is worth a thousand pieces of gold.
Flowers have clear fragrance;
the moon has shadow.
Songs and flutes on the upstairs terrace;
the threadlike sound is fine, fine.
A rope-swing in the still courtyard,
where night is deep, deep.”
(From The Silk Dragon;
https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/silk-dragon-translations-from-the-chinese-tr-arthur-sze/)
One final poem,
appropriate to the
season we are now
moving into:
Black Box
When you open this box,
bassoons play: autumn
light slants across cattails
where redwing blackbirds
nest at a pond. When you
close the box, juniper
crackles in a fireplace;
you try to reopen the lid,
but this black box stays shut….
Drinking water from the tap,
you are only thirstier;
as you pivot around the space,
the triangular walls
stretch into starlight,
and you wonder what
is this box you’re now inside of.
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2024-3-fall/poem/arthur-sze-black-box
As a poet and avid
reader of poetry, I am
thrilled by the
appointment of Arthur
Sze, and look forward
to welcoming him to
Washington. In the
meantime, you can find
more poems at The
Poetry Foundation and
The Academy of American
Poets and his books can
be found at Copper
Canyon Press: https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/authors/arthur-sze/
Watch and listen to Sze here: https://www.pw.org/theater?tag=Arthur%20Sze
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