Arthur Sze has constructed a complicated tapestry of poems informed by his Chinese American heritage, his rich knowledge of American Indian culture, and classical Chinese poetry. Telling you about his background, influences, and ideas falls pretty far short of the mark, though. These poems succeed at the level of execution, in finding just the right words to suggest, say, a Zen sensibility, while using contemporary American English to describe the complicated interplay between the natural and constructed worlds. From "The Redshifting Web": "You may draw a cloud pattern in cement / setting in a patio, or wake to / sparkling ferns melting on a windowpane. / The struck, plucked, bowed, blown / sounds of the world come and go."
