The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems - Softcover

Sze, Arthur

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1556597061 ISBN 13: 9781556597060

Publisher: Copper Canyon Press, 2024

Synopsis

**From the 25th U.S. Poet Laureate**

**Winner of the 2024 National Book Foundation Science + Literature Award**

An affordable paperback edition of the Collected Works of the one of the most astonishing poets writing today: U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze

The Glass Constellation is a triumph spanning five decades, including ten poetry collections and twenty-six new poems, from National Book Award winner Arthur Sze. Sze began his career writing compressed, lyrical poems influenced by classical Chinese poetry; he later made a leap into powerful polysemous sequences, honing a distinct stylistic signature that harnesses luminous particulars, and is sharply focused, emotionally resonant, and structurally complex. Fusing elements of Chinese, Japanese, Native American, and various Western experimental traditions―employing startling juxtapositions that are always on target, deeply informed by concern for our endangered planet and troubled species―Sze presents experience in all its multiplicities, in singular book after book. This collection is an invitation to immerse in a visionary body of work, mapping the evolution of one of our finest American poets.

About this title

About the Author

Arthur Sze (he/him) is an award-winning poet, translator, and editor who has published eleven books of original poetry. His works have been translated into fourteen languages, and include The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems (2021); Sight Lines (2019), which won the National Book Award for Poetry; and, Compass Rose (2014), a Pulitzer Prize finalist. His book of translations, The Silk Dragon: Translations from the Chinese (2001), was selected for the Western States Book Award. A recipient of the 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, Sze has also been awarded support from the Guggenheim Foundation, Lannan Foundation, Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, and National Endowment of the Arts. A Chancellor Emeritus at the Academy of American Poets, he is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts and was the first poet laureate of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Noah’s / Dove

The moon is black.

Had I a bird

it would fly,

beat the air into land. To remain

or trust

the silver leaves of the sea?What if

I say what is:

no bird, no land.

The sea tossing

its damp wet fish

on the bow,

their lungs exhaling

the sea, taking in

moon air

for the first time . . . 

Frost

Notice each windowpane has a different 

swirling pattern of frost etched on the glass.

And notice how slowly the sun melts

the glaze. It is indelible: a fossil of a fern,

or a coelacanth, or a derelict who 

rummages in his pockets and pulls out a few

apple cores. Notice the peculiar

angle of light in the slow shift of sunrise.

Where is the whir of the helicopter?

The search for escaped convicts in the city?

Be amazed at the shine and the wet. 

Simply to live is a joy.

Edition details

• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1556597061
• ISBN 13: 9781556597060
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 552