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FERN, COAL,
DIAMOND
DIAMOND
The intense pressure of the
earth
makes coal out of ferns, diamonds out of coal.
The intense pressure
of the earth
is within us, and makes coal
and diamond
desires.
earth
makes coal out of ferns, diamonds out of coal.
The intense pressure
of the earth
is within us, and makes coal
and diamond
desires.
For instance, we are a
river
flowing and flowing out to sea,
an oak fire flaring and flaring in a
night
with no wind, or, protean,
a river, a fire, an oak, a hawk, a
wind.
river
flowing and flowing out to sea,
an oak fire flaring and flaring in a
night
with no wind, or, protean,
a river, a fire, an oak, a hawk, a
wind.
And now, at first
light,
I mark the stages of our growth:
mark fern, coal, diamond,
mark
a pressure transforming
even broken nails and broken glass into
clear
molten light.
light,
I mark the stages of our growth:
mark fern, coal, diamond,
mark
a pressure transforming
even broken nails and broken glass into
clear
molten light.
~ Arthur Sze
~
~
(The Redshifting
Web)
Web)
Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/Fern_Coal_Diamond.html
Arthur Sze (1950 - )
Arthur Sze is a poet whose work, according to Albuquerque Journal reviewer John Tritica, "resides somewhere in the intersection of Taoistcontemplation, Zen rock gardens and postmodern experimentation." Sze
was born in New York City in 1950, and he was educated at the
University of California at Berkeley in the early 1970s. In 1984 he
began teaching at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and in 1989 he
became professor of creative writing at the institution.
Sze's poetry collection Archipelago was hailed by Tritica
as "an important poetic achievement." In these poems Sze sometimes
produces unlikely juxtapositions of imagery, and he expresses both the
sensual and the philosophical. "His achievement is solid because he
enacts a synthesis of the life-sustaining web that is both Eastern and
Western," Tritica affirmed, "both fragile and durable." Another
enthusiast, Gene Frumkin, wrote in Manoa that the poems in Archipelago "show a remarkable ability to seize on nature and human undertakings
without cataloging them." Frumkin called Sze a "precisionist" and added
that the poet's work reveals the creator to be a "wise man." C. L.
Rawlins, meanwhile, declared in the Bloomsbury Review, "There are very few books of poetry that hold such a variety of passion . . . in such compassionate and graceful form."
The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998, Sze charts his artistic development of nearly twenty years. William MacNeil wrote in New Mexican,The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998 is seeing the evolution Arthur Sze has made from young, always lyrical
poet to complex writer, drawing images from a wide range of sources to
create rich tapestries." MacNeil concluded that the volume "will well
reward poetry lovers." "One of the joys of The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998 is seeing the evolution
Arthur Sze has made from young, always lyrical poet to complex writer,
drawing images from a wide range of sources to create rich tapestries."
MacNeil concluded that the volume "will well reward poetry lovers."
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=81688