Sight Lines

April 22, 2019
The tenth book from Sze (Compass Rose) contains poems in a range of forms, from hybrid prose poems to luminous lyric fragments, gracefully unified by a preoccupation with transformation. He considers all that is ephemeral in nature—an “actor’s face changing” or “pomegranate trees flowering along a highway”—calling attention to the inherent instability of language and the self. Sze artfully matches style and content, the poems changing shape as the book unfolds. He observes, for instance, that “you dissolve midnight and noon; sunlight/ tilts and leafs the tips of the far Norway maples.” The poem’s pristine couplets are transfigured in the next piece, “Sight Lines,” a narrative in single-line stanzas. Sze asserts, “though parallel lines touch in the infinite, the infinite is here.” The writing itself revels in the “infinite” refractions and reverberations of poetic technique, as possibilities are gradually unearthed through formal shifts. Sze asks, as though reflecting on the gorgeously layered experience he has created for the reader, “Where are we headed, you wonder, as you pick a lychee and start to peel it.” Finely crafted and philosophical, this is a book that rewards multiple careful readings.

May 1, 2019

The wonders and realities of the world as seen through travel, nature walks, and daily routine bring life to the poems in Pulitzer Prize finalist Sze's tenth collection (after Compass Rose), even if he also communicates facts about our polluted, damaged world. Sze creates tensile energy by balancing the cerebral with the physical ("you write tingle / and tingle as sleet turns to rain"), and almost every poem incorporates unique details not united by theme or likeness. In the seventh section of "Water Calligraphy," for instance, the poet jumps from the letter A as "an inverted cow's head," to the Perseid meteor shower to a neighbor bringing gifts of cucumbers and basil. But as Sze records elsewhere, "an invisible globe--thud, shattering glass, moan, / horn blast--so many// worlds to this world." The poems often require rereading, as speaker and location can change abruptly, and it's challenging when Sze seizes upon the negative, what is not happening now: "No sharp-shinned hawk perches/ on the roof rack of his car and scans/ for songbirds." In addition, the sheer number and variety of images can almost overwhelm. But in the end, there is "starlight behind daylight wherever you gaze," and each poem provides a sensual, intellectual take on the world. VERDICT Provocative work; a solid addition to academic and popular collections.--Doris Lynch, Monroe Cty. P.L., Bloomington, IN

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