Happy National Poetry Month from all of us at Copper Canyon Press! As we turn toward spring—a season of renewed hope—we invite you to take a moment to enjoy a poem by Arthur Sze from his gorgeous new collection, The Glass Constellation: New & Selected Poems:
Pyrocumulus
by Arthur Sze
Peony shoots rise out of the earth;
at five a.m., walking up the ridge,
I mark how, in April, Orion’s left arm
was an apex in the sky, and, by May,
only Venus flickered above the ridge
against the blue edge of sunrise.
In daylight, a pear tree explodes
with white blossoms—no black-
footed ferret slips across my path,
no boreal owl stirs on a branch.
At three a.m., dogs seethed and howled
when a black bear snagged a shriveled
apple off a branch; and, waking out
of a black pool, I glimpsed how
fire creates its own weather
in rising pyrocumulus. Reaching
the ditch, I drop the gate: it’s time
for the downhill pipes to fill,
time for bamboo at the house
to suck up water, time to see sunlight
flare between leaves before
the scorching edge of afternoon.
Get the Book
This spring, all the books featured in our National Poetry Month series—including The Glass Constellation—are available as gifts when you donate to Copper Canyon Press. Make your gift of $35 or above using the form below, and receive one or more books from our new season:
- $35 = choose one book
- $50 = choose two books
- $75 or $100 = choose three books
- $125 or $150 = receive all five books
Choose from these new and forthcoming poetry collections:
- Waterbaby, Nikki Wallschlaeger (available April 6)
- The Glass Constellation: New and Collected Poems, Arthur Sze (available April 13)
- Water I Won’t Touch, Kayleb Rae Candrilli (available April 20)
- Dialogues with Rising Tides, Kelli Russell Agodon (available April 27)
- The Complete Stories, Noah Warren (available May 18)
Thank you!
Launch Party Livestream Spring 2021
Join us Wednesday, May 5, 2021 at 5:00pm PT for our spring Launch Party Livestream—an online poetry reading, benefit, and celebration of five new books from our spring season, featuring Kelli Russell Agodon, Kayleb Rae Candrilli, Arthur Sze, Nikki Wallschlaeger, and Noah Warren.
Each poet will read from their new collection, and we’ll end the evening with a Q&A and opportunity to support Copper Canyon Press. Registration is free through Zoom, and all are welcome. See you there!
