Poem of the Week

Arthur Sze, the first Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Sight Lines (Copper Canyon Press, 2019), The Ginkgo Light, and Compass Rose. The recipient of several awards, including the 2019 National Book Award for Poetry, a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, an American Book Award, and a Jackson Poetry Prize, Sze is also a chancellor at the Academy of American Poets. He lives in Santa Fe and is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Photograph by Jennifer Brummett.

Pinwheel

by Arthur Sze

Firecrackers pop in bursts of white light and smoke;
a cymbal crash reverberates in air: mortality’s

the incubator of dreams. Steaming green beans,
or screwing a wrought-iron hook into a post,


I do not expunge the past but ignite the fuse
to a whistling pinwheel. A girl sways under
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