Into the Hush

Arthur Sze is a treasure and a beacon of a poet, whose indispensable body of work offers no less than ‘a way to navigate this world’. As wise as it is beguiling, Into the Hush reminds me of George Eliot’s ‘roar which lies on the other side of silence’. These poems lead us through the intermeshing worlds of matter and spirit, science and instinct, to touch the beating heart of things. ‘[H]ere is the anvil on which to hammer your days–’: I, for one, am ready to accept the invitation, the challenge. – Sarah Howe, author of Foretokens [A] bold vision of the world’s fragility: one of unceasing iridescence and glimmer, even in the face of ecological destruction and dilapidation… Even in its continual replenishing beauty, the collection is eerie, as though these poems were a last attempt to bring order to the disorder of living – Oluwaseun Olayiwola * Guardian *Gorgeous and powerful… a collection of formal dexterity and profound empathy, which is most deeply felt through Sze’s vivid and precise imagery. Moving through human and non-human perspectives, Sze considers nature, time, and interconnectedness, in elegant and utterly arresting language. I finished this collection with fresh eyes and a renewed love for poetry-reading – Megan Robson * Poetry Book Society *

Arthur Sze is a poet, translator, editor and the current US Poet Laureate. His poetry has received several awards including the 2025 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry for Lifetime Achievement, the 2019 National Book Award, 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Guggenheim Fellowship, Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and Lannan Literary Award. Sze is a chancellor emeritus of the Academy of American Poets and was the first Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, where he lives with his wife, the poet Carol Moldaw.