Sight Lines

The poems of Sight Lines range widely through space and time, from people writing calligraphy with water in China’s public parks to Thomas Jefferson laying out dinosaur bones on the White House floor. Arthur Sze speaks in many voices, among them lichen on a ceiling and a man behind on his rent. The National Book Award judges noted its meditations on the natural world, on food, and on memory and human relationships, and its awareness of environmental and social threats.