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The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems
"This book is an overwhelming feast, a treasure, and more than enough proof that Sze is a major poet." —NPRNational Book Award winner Arthur Sze is a master poet, and The Glass Constellation is a triumph spanning five decades, including ten poetry collections and twenty-six new poems. 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—Arthur 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.
- GenresPoetry
533 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 13, 2021
44 people are currently reading
322 people want to read
About the author
Arthur Sze
36 books72 followersArthur Sze (b. 1950 New York City) is a second-generation Chinese American poet.
Sze was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author of eight books of poetry. His own poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Conjunctions, The Kenyon Review, Manoa, The Paris Review, Field, The New Yorker, and Virginia Quarterly Review, and have been translated into Albanian, Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Romanian, and Turkish.
He was a Visiting Hurst Professor at Washington University, a Doenges Visiting Artist at Mary Baldwin College, and has conducted residencies at Brown University, Bard College, and Naropa University. He is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts and is the first poet laureate of Santa Fe.
He is the recipient of a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing fellowships, a George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship, three grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, and a Western States Book Award for Translation.
Sze was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author of eight books of poetry. His own poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Conjunctions, The Kenyon Review, Manoa, The Paris Review, Field, The New Yorker, and Virginia Quarterly Review, and have been translated into Albanian, Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Romanian, and Turkish.
He was a Visiting Hurst Professor at Washington University, a Doenges Visiting Artist at Mary Baldwin College, and has conducted residencies at Brown University, Bard College, and Naropa University. He is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts and is the first poet laureate of Santa Fe.
He is the recipient of a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing fellowships, a George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship, three grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, and a Western States Book Award for Translation.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 21, 2023
Having read and thought about Arthur Sze for years, I finally mustered the courage to complete The Glass Constellation.
When I first began reading his work, I was confused by it. Many of the images and gestures he evokes seem unrelated to one another. When I read Sight Lines, I came to a moment of revelation when I realized these pieces often crossed each other throughout a book, so an image earlier in a collection might surface again later on with new detail added or parts omitted.
My reading of Sze is that his collections of poems form a system. Sze is a poet of the microscopic and the macroscopic - in a single poem, you may bear witness to a star thousands of light years away or a single spore of a mushroom, in between observations of raku firing, flora and fauna of the desert, human cruelty, and the touch of a lover. Only when you read a collection in its entirety might you understand how a turn of phrase corresponds to the whole. In my head, I liken his work to a sand painting where each grain comes together into a meaningful whole, but it may be more apt to describe his poetics as polyphonic or mycorrhizal. Everything happens together.
For this reason, I feel his work can be difficult for readers to access. He often uses the same images throughout his career - the fly amanita, preparing tea, a butterfly opening its wings - with few variations between them. It seems he’s always hunting for mushrooms. Yet this consistency also gives the poetry a somewhat hypnotic or meditative effect.
Poem by poem, I can’t actually speak to whether I find what he has produced to be something I would recommend to friends. At the very least, reading a Sze poem is generally pleasant. But taking a step back to see how the poems correspond and link to one another offers a masterful sense of cohesion. I think this is what makes his work profound. Out of this, some really brilliant lines emerge from the controlled chaos.
So yeah, I’m a fan. But it takes time and patience, and isn’t immediately rewarding. I don’t think people are drawn to poetry for immediacy though - what Sze offers is revelation.
When I first began reading his work, I was confused by it. Many of the images and gestures he evokes seem unrelated to one another. When I read Sight Lines, I came to a moment of revelation when I realized these pieces often crossed each other throughout a book, so an image earlier in a collection might surface again later on with new detail added or parts omitted.
My reading of Sze is that his collections of poems form a system. Sze is a poet of the microscopic and the macroscopic - in a single poem, you may bear witness to a star thousands of light years away or a single spore of a mushroom, in between observations of raku firing, flora and fauna of the desert, human cruelty, and the touch of a lover. Only when you read a collection in its entirety might you understand how a turn of phrase corresponds to the whole. In my head, I liken his work to a sand painting where each grain comes together into a meaningful whole, but it may be more apt to describe his poetics as polyphonic or mycorrhizal. Everything happens together.
For this reason, I feel his work can be difficult for readers to access. He often uses the same images throughout his career - the fly amanita, preparing tea, a butterfly opening its wings - with few variations between them. It seems he’s always hunting for mushrooms. Yet this consistency also gives the poetry a somewhat hypnotic or meditative effect.
Poem by poem, I can’t actually speak to whether I find what he has produced to be something I would recommend to friends. At the very least, reading a Sze poem is generally pleasant. But taking a step back to see how the poems correspond and link to one another offers a masterful sense of cohesion. I think this is what makes his work profound. Out of this, some really brilliant lines emerge from the controlled chaos.
So yeah, I’m a fan. But it takes time and patience, and isn’t immediately rewarding. I don’t think people are drawn to poetry for immediacy though - what Sze offers is revelation.
December 14, 2021
Circumference
Vanilla farmers in Madagascar sit in the dark with rifles;
at two a.m., after a thunderstorm,
I lurch down the hallway to check the oak floor
under a skylight, place a towel
in a pan. As if armed, waiting for a blue string
to trip a thief, I listen
in the hush at a point where ink flows out of a pen
onto a white Sahara of a page.
Adjusting the rearview mirror in the car before backing
out of the garage, I ask, What
is the logarithm of a dream? How do you trace a sphere
whose center is nowhere?
It is hard to believe farmers pollinate vanilla orchids
with toothpick-sized needles,
yet we do as needed; pouring syrup on a pancake,
I catch the scent of vines,
race along the circumference, sensing what it’s like to sit
in the dark with nothing in my hands.
Vanilla farmers in Madagascar sit in the dark with rifles;
at two a.m., after a thunderstorm,
I lurch down the hallway to check the oak floor
under a skylight, place a towel
in a pan. As if armed, waiting for a blue string
to trip a thief, I listen
in the hush at a point where ink flows out of a pen
onto a white Sahara of a page.
Adjusting the rearview mirror in the car before backing
out of the garage, I ask, What
is the logarithm of a dream? How do you trace a sphere
whose center is nowhere?
It is hard to believe farmers pollinate vanilla orchids
with toothpick-sized needles,
yet we do as needed; pouring syrup on a pancake,
I catch the scent of vines,
race along the circumference, sensing what it’s like to sit
in the dark with nothing in my hands.
Read
July 12, 2021Did not finish. I don't think this poetry is my style. I also struggled to understand much of what I was reading.
April 1, 2022
SO GOOD!!!
August 14, 2021
A stunning collection. Will read and re-read over and over again.
February 10, 2022
This is a big book covering fifty years of the author's poetry, in which you get to see the evolution of his style and the topics that are on his mind. The individual poems or the sections the longer
poems are divided into are mostly of medium length throughout. The poems generally do not try to tell any kind of coherent overall story. This sometimes gives a timeless feeling, like a dream. Instead, they slide between different striking images with only the faintest of connections visible between them, not narrative except in short, condensed stretches. Much of the imagery is drawn from the American southwest where he lives, but there are distant locales, or even cosmic musings. Lots of times we see something out of nature, also moments when humans interact with nature. His usual strategy is to follow one of these up with a completely human-centric line or two, even cutting over in the middle of a line. My understanding is this is a prominent feature of classical Chinese poetry This can generate a feeling of shocking contrast or suggest a mysterious connection through the juxtaposition, or maybe both. When the author does something like this, it can surprise the reader with an emotional payoff.
Since the poems were composed over such a long period of time you can see innovations and evolution both in form and in ideas. From time to time there are unnamed characters (real or imagined) showing up for just a glimpse. One or two pieces collected here are in the form of a list of names lacking even verbs, still others lists of commands or suggestions directed to the reader as though something urgent needed to be done. In a few of the later poems, including the title poem, there are strikethroughs making them look either like drafts or like unspoken thoughts.
His very simple style appeals to me very much because I have for a long time entertained the idea of writing something just stinging the most striking phrases one after the other, like shiny beads on a string.
poems are divided into are mostly of medium length throughout. The poems generally do not try to tell any kind of coherent overall story. This sometimes gives a timeless feeling, like a dream. Instead, they slide between different striking images with only the faintest of connections visible between them, not narrative except in short, condensed stretches. Much of the imagery is drawn from the American southwest where he lives, but there are distant locales, or even cosmic musings. Lots of times we see something out of nature, also moments when humans interact with nature. His usual strategy is to follow one of these up with a completely human-centric line or two, even cutting over in the middle of a line. My understanding is this is a prominent feature of classical Chinese poetry This can generate a feeling of shocking contrast or suggest a mysterious connection through the juxtaposition, or maybe both. When the author does something like this, it can surprise the reader with an emotional payoff.
Since the poems were composed over such a long period of time you can see innovations and evolution both in form and in ideas. From time to time there are unnamed characters (real or imagined) showing up for just a glimpse. One or two pieces collected here are in the form of a list of names lacking even verbs, still others lists of commands or suggestions directed to the reader as though something urgent needed to be done. In a few of the later poems, including the title poem, there are strikethroughs making them look either like drafts or like unspoken thoughts.
His very simple style appeals to me very much because I have for a long time entertained the idea of writing something just stinging the most striking phrases one after the other, like shiny beads on a string.
November 23, 2021
Transpirations
Leafing branches of a backyard plum—
branches of water on a dissolving ice sheet—
chatter of magpies when you approach—
lilacs lean over the road, weighted with purple blossoms—
then the noon sun shimmers the grasses—
you ride the surge into summer—
smell of piñon crackling in the fireplace—
blued notes of a saxophone in the air—
not by sand running through an hourglass but by our bodies igniting—
passing in the form of vapors from a living body—
this world of orange sunlight and wildfire haze—
world of iron filings pulled toward magnetic south and north—
pool of quicksilver when you bend to tie your shoes—
standing, you well up with glistening eyes—
have you lived with utmost care?—
have you articulated emotions like the edges of leaves?—
adjusting your breath to the seasonal rhythm of grasses—
gazing into a lake on a salt flat and drinking, in reflection, the Milky Way—
Leafing branches of a backyard plum—
branches of water on a dissolving ice sheet—
chatter of magpies when you approach—
lilacs lean over the road, weighted with purple blossoms—
then the noon sun shimmers the grasses—
you ride the surge into summer—
smell of piñon crackling in the fireplace—
blued notes of a saxophone in the air—
not by sand running through an hourglass but by our bodies igniting—
passing in the form of vapors from a living body—
this world of orange sunlight and wildfire haze—
world of iron filings pulled toward magnetic south and north—
pool of quicksilver when you bend to tie your shoes—
standing, you well up with glistening eyes—
have you lived with utmost care?—
have you articulated emotions like the edges of leaves?—
adjusting your breath to the seasonal rhythm of grasses—
gazing into a lake on a salt flat and drinking, in reflection, the Milky Way—
March 25, 2021
A full career of worthy poems is presented here. A skillful use of poetics with keen observation of the natural world - not for the sake of sublimity, but something even more important - establishment of contexts that demand observation to survive.
June 28, 2022
Massive collection, spanning the full 50 years plus of Sze's career. Interesting to see poems from the 1970s (Sze was in Berkeley at the time), and then his growing fascination with/knowledge of Native American culture.
October 23, 2021
This book covers 50 years of Sze’s poetry. I saw him (via Zoom) give a reading when it was first released, and became so enthralled, I ordered a copy before the reading finished. Every poem in this book sings, some melodies reached out and grabbed me, others gently washed over and through me. He has several long poems, with each section numbered, and each section in a different format. He plays with words; he plays with format.
I consider a book to be superb when the author sends me to the dictionary at least once. I have no idea how many times Mr. Sze sent me to the dictionary. I gave up trying to remember after 10.
He takes us from China (Ancient and Modern) to the Pacific Northwest, from Santa Fe to the desert of Sahara, with stops at any and all places in between and around the globe. He made me laugh, he made me cry, but mostly he held me in thrall. I am in literary lust!
If you are a lover of contemporary poetry, I heartily recommend this book. If you aren’t sure about it, get the book anyhow. It’s a thing of beauty and a collection of pearls of great price.
I consider a book to be superb when the author sends me to the dictionary at least once. I have no idea how many times Mr. Sze sent me to the dictionary. I gave up trying to remember after 10.
He takes us from China (Ancient and Modern) to the Pacific Northwest, from Santa Fe to the desert of Sahara, with stops at any and all places in between and around the globe. He made me laugh, he made me cry, but mostly he held me in thrall. I am in literary lust!
If you are a lover of contemporary poetry, I heartily recommend this book. If you aren’t sure about it, get the book anyhow. It’s a thing of beauty and a collection of pearls of great price.
May 5, 2024
This author will be at Santa Fe Literary Festival 2024. I enjoyed the science references on astronomy, biology and physics as well as the geography described many areas of New Mexico that I am familiar with as a frequent visitor. The poems lacked cohesiveness for one volume but I learned at end pages that these were written over 50 year span. Sometimes the scientific descriptions were jarring alongside the poetry, but I’m sure intentional.
August 16, 2025
I really could not get into his work. Just because one throws in a bit of I-Ching, and a whole disparate amount of ideas from other cultures does not make it interesting or very philosophical. This collection is just not for me at the moment.
April 25, 2025
So glad to have discovered this poet. Zen-like with fusion of physical and astronomical science, multiple world cultures as well as the contradictions of human reasons and hearts.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews