Arthur Sze’s 12th book of poetry, Into the Hush, explores flashes of the sublime and the impact of humans on the primordial beauty of nature.
Sze conjures explosively vivid images that draw the reader into each poem like a doorway to a specific moment in time, such as an inlet ice breakup on an Anchorage night. Every poem in Into the Hush carries a unique and playful rhythm that guides the reader through the poem.
Sunlight strikes the leafless aspen branches,
strikes the white picket fence, and as I
look at the highlighted edges, my eyes sting.
—“Leafless,” Page 54
Sze uses a wide variety of forms and rhyming patterns to explore both humanity’s impact on nature and flashes of ecosystems untouched by humankind. Into the Hush is both a celebration and a eulogy for lost cultures and languages that are fading into extinction. Using his vast poetic experience, Sze creates a versatile collection of poems that mesh into a complete artistic vision that all audiences can appreciate. Into the Hush is packed with poems that unify the human form with nature and dissolve the barrier between the physical body and the natural world.
out of the semaphore of saying something we did not know we knew—
out of an Olmec dagger unearthed when digging a new subway line—
out of all seasons at once—
praise to finding a single black morel in a cardiologist’s garden—
—“Into the Hush,” Page 34
Sze’s writing is personal and carries a magic that can only be conveyed from a deep respect for the contents of each poem. Into the Hush explores the duality of ecosystems dying at human hands and the undeniable beauty of nature.
