The Opal

By Arthur Sze b. 1950 Arthur Sze

Nailing up chicken wire on the frame house,

or using a chalk line, or checking a level at a glance

gets to be easy.

We install double-pane windows

pressurized with argon between the panes

for elevations over 4500´.

And use pick and shovel

to dig for the footing for the annex. Lay cinder blocks,

and check levels. Pour the cement floor, and

use wood float and steel trowel to finish the surface

as it sets.

Nailing into rough, dense, knotted

two-by-twelves, or using a chalk line to mark the locations

of the fire blocks, or checking the level of a

stained eight-by-ten window header gets to be

easier.

In nailing up chicken wire, we know

how to cut for the canal, pull the wire up over the

fire wall, make cuts for the corners, tuck it

around back, and nail two-head nails into the stud.

And when the footing is slightly uneven and we are

laying a first row of cinder blocks, know that a

small pebble under a corner often levels the top

to the row.

And, starting on rock lath, the various

stages of a house - cutting vigas, cleaning aspens for

latillas, installing oak doors, or plastering the

adobe wall - are facets of a cut opal.

Arthur Sze, “The Opal” from The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998. Copyright © 1998 by Arthur Sze. Reprinted with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townshend, WA 98368-0271, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

Source: The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998 (Copper Canyon Press, 1998)

Biography

Arthur Sze was born in New York City in 1950, and educated at the University of California-Berkeley. Known for his difficult, meticulous poems, Sze’s work has been described as the “intersection of Taoist contemplation, Zen rock gardens and postmodern experimentation” by the critic John Tritica. The poet Dana Levin described Sze as “a poet of what I would call Deep Noticing, a strong lineage in American poetry. Its most obvious . . .

Continue reading this biography