Product Description

Product Description

Product Description
a major new collection of Sze's poetic work ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The world in a grain of sand
If you don't know Sze's work, this is a good place to start, and if you do it's a fine "Best of" collection with a few new poems added.I liked it a great deal, and kept picking it up and rereading some of the poems.However, Sze isn't one of my favorite poets, and after some thoughtI finally decided why.He belongs to the school of poets (both Western andEastern) who see everything in the universe as interconnected and everypart, from a dragonfly to a planet, as emblematic of the whole.In some ofhis more recent poems, I felt that he just presented lengthy lists ofobjects or events (however memorably described) and left it up to thereader to make the connection between them.While often the result can beenlightening, for me this sometimes injected too much intellectual effortinto the process of appreciating a poem -- which, to my way of thinking,should be more like a lightning flash that illuminates the whole landscape. Also, the specificity of some of his allusions troubled me.He'll brieflymention an event that loomed large in local news, so I (as a local) willhave an intense reaction to it -- but does he expect someone from (say)Dubuque to have as strong a reaction?Which reaction did he intend when hementioned that event, and how does that affect the way a reader"takes" the whole poem?Again, his ex-wife is a well-known Hopiweaver;does knowing about this emotional connection change the way youread some of his allusions to Hopi beliefs?At one point he mentions herpulverizing bugs in a blender -- is the reader supposed to think that she'spracticing a refined form of cruelty to insects, or are we expected torecognize that she's making cochineal dye?(He provides footnotes, butthey're mostly translations of local Spanish words he uses.)In short, ismy "local knowledge" something he calculated into the poem, or isit getting in the way of the effect he really wants?With a poet who'smore explicit about what he/she expects you to "get" from thepoem, the issue doesn't arise for me, but in this style of poetry I findhis reticence rather confusing.Still, this collection is well worthreading and thoroughly enjoyable.

Sze goes where and whenhe pleases
Arthur Sze introduces the reader to an original way of thinking embodied in the the old Hua Yen school of Buddhism.Hua Yen (Kegon in Japan) believes all places and times exist in all other places and times.Eventsare a reflection of an infinite set of dimensions -- each one relfelcted inthe other.The "Redshifting Web" a collection of Sze's poetryhas the sensibility of infinite dimension universal life, not a commonperspective in any poet.If your are interested in this viewpoint youshould look into the "Flower Ornament Scripture" a tanslation ofa Buddhist sutra by Thomas Cleary.Another poet with a similar, but morezen/dadistic-inspired vista is Takahashi in "The of Triumph of theSparrow."If you want to see and hear more ---Sze is your man.

The mouse has a white eye where the river rages not far from the orangeon your table...

Sze goes where and whenhe pleases
Arthur Sze introduces the reader to an original way of thinking embodied in the the old Hua Yen school of Buddhism.Hua Yen (Kegon in Japan) believes all places and times exist in all other places and times.Eventsare a reflection of an infinite set of dimensions -- each one relfelcted inthe other.The "Redshifting Web" a collection of Sze's poetryhas the sensibility of infinite dimension universal life, not a commonperspective in any poet.If your are interested in this viewpoint youshould look into the "Flower Ornament Scripture" a tanslation ofa Buddhist sutra by Thomas Cleary.Another poet with a similar, but morezen/dadistic-inspired vista is Takahashi in "The of Triumph of theSparrow."If you want to see and hear more ---Sze is your man.

The mouse has a white eye where the river rages not far from the orangeon your table... ... Read more

Product Description
"These photographs burn in the retina and then in the body and mind. They unfold with uncanny and luminous elegance."—from the Introduction by Arthur Sze

In a bold departure from her traditional portraiture, acclaimed photographer Mariana Cook turns her eye to the lovely, overlooked world found close at hand. Beginning January 1, 1999, one year before the new millennium, Cook set herself the task of taking one very serious photograph every day, forcing her to look anew at everything surrounding her. The resulting work is a passionate celebration of looking closely. This is not a diary or self-interested exhibition, rather it is a celebration of form and transformation, a warm and thankful awareness of the world around us. It is impossible to resist these tender images—a child's feet in the sand, bands of light on the living room floor, a single glistening oyster—or to remain unaffected by the subtle poignancy of the familiar made mysterious. 96 duotone photographs. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An Inspring and Beautiful Book!
I have known Mariana Cook, and her photography, for many years.This book is filled with subtle and delicate images.. The images reveal the beauty that is around us always... if we will only take the time to look and experience what we encounter every day.This elegant book will inspire you to see the world, and your day-to-day surroundings, in a new way.

Incomparable Beauty
Mariana Cook has understood the deeply authentic beauty in the most quotidian of objects, scenes, and actions. A bird flying, a stack of pancakes, a hand -- all captured in exquisite angles, shapes, and sensitivity. Would that every photo were seen by writers, actors, and performers of every professional inclination -- learn the fun and surprises of beauty too seldom observed as she does with such mastery. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
Arthur Sze has constructed a complicated tapestry of poemsinformed by his Chinese American heritage, his rich knowledge ofAmerican Indian culture, and classical Chinese poetry. Telling youabout his background, influences, and ideas falls pretty far short ofthe mark, though. These poems succeed at the level of execution, infinding just the right words to suggest, say, a Zen sensibility, whileusing contemporary American English to describe the complicatedinterplay between the natural and constructed worlds. From "TheRedshifting Web": "You may draw a cloud pattern in cement /setting in a patio, or wake to / sparkling ferns melting on awindowpane. / The struck, plucked, bowed, blown / sounds of the worldcome and go." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Breahtaking
I was given the assignment to read this book of poetry as part of a final exam during a creative writing class, and I absolutely adored it. Sze's poems are beautiful. I could not do them justice in this simple little review. His words are chosen carefully, the sentences ebbing and flowing into one another perfectly. I love going back and reading these poems, looking for something I missed or stumbling upon a gem of a sentence among the pages. Highly recommended! ... Read more

Product Description
Arthur Sze has rare qualifications when it comes to translating Chinese: he is an award-winning poet who was raised in both languages. A second-generation Chinese-American, Sze has gathered over 70 poems that have had a profound effect on both American poetics and Sze's own maturation as an artist. His anthology features poets who have become literary icons to generations of Chinese readers and scholars. Here are the quiet nature poems ofLi Ching Chao alongside the remorseful exile poems of Su Tung-p'o. Also included is an informative insightful essay on Sze's methods and processes of translating ideogramic poetry. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Another winner from Sze.
Arthur Sze, Quipu (Copper Canyon, 2005)

I've heard the name Arthur Sze bandied about by folks in the know for a lot of years now, but is one of that vast band of poets whom I'd never actually got round to reading, and decided this was the year. Quipu had the best title, so I started there. A fine decision, as it turns out, if an entirely arbitrary one.

Sze's palette of interests, obsessions, and symbols is about as wide-reaching as Ezra Pound's, so if you don't have an encyclopedia in your head, you may want to have one handy. Sze does provide some notes at the end of the book, which can be helpful at times, but probably not enough for most folks. Or you can take an alternative approach: just let yourself get lost in the language, and if you still feel like looking up quinoa at the end, go ahead. Those of you who are not cooks and/or watchers of the Food Network will be able to at least get the idea that you're dealing with food, since Sze has his quinoa "simmer[ing] in a pot; the aroma of cilantro/on swordfish; the cusp of spring when you//lean your head on my shoulder." (from the wonderfully titled "The Angle of Reflection Equals the Angle of Incidence") As long as you're satisfied with gathering that quinoa is food, and don't need to go scurrying off to the dictionary, you can sit back and just take in the way the syllables twist, float, and play off one another in that small passage (and the poem whence it comes). It's one of the many gems to be found in this lovely book, which, if you haven't yet read, you should. ****
... Read more

Product Description
The Summer 2010 issue of The Kenyon Review features an essay by Lewis Hyde, fiction by Amit Majmudar, and poems by Meghan O'Rourke, Anna Journey and Arthur Sze. ... Read more

Product Description
Word count: 965. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Allan Houser, Elizabeth Woody, Fritz Scholder, Charlene Teters, Arthur Sze, Linda Lomahaftewa, Louis W. Ballard. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 41. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Allan Houser ( June 29, 1914 - August 22, 1994) was one of the most renowned Native American painters and Modernist sculptors of the 20th century. Born of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, a Chiricahua Apache tribe in Oklahoma, Houser's work can be found at the United Nations building in New York City, at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and in other public buildings throughout the U.S. capital. From humble beginnings came a man who took on two of the great conversations of his time the Native American experience, and the challenges posed by abstract modernism and forged a new way of seeing both visions. Born in 1914 to Sam and Blossom Haozous on the family farm in Apache, Oklahoma near Fort Sill, Native American artist Allan Houser was the first member of his family from the Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache tribe born outside of captivity since Geronimos 1886 surrender and the tribe's imprisonment by the U.S. government. The tribe had been led in battle by the legendary spiritual leader Geronimo, who would later rely on his grandnephew Sam Haozous, Allans father, to serve as his translator. In 1934, Houser left Oklahoma at the age of 20 to study at Dorothy Dunn's Art Studio at the Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico. A groundbreaking instructor in Native American arts, Dunn's method combined a strict formalism with a deep and abiding interest in stylized Native iconography. For the latter, Houser had a rich history upon which to draw and made hundreds of drawings and canvasses in Santa Fe and was one of Dunn's top students. In 1939, Houser began his professional career by showing ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4437034 ... Read more

Product Description
Accordian folded sheet. ... Read more