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    Anatomy of Clay, The
    Anatomy of Clay, The
    Anatomy of Clay, The
    Ebook101 pages43 minutes

    Anatomy of Clay, The

    By Gillian Sze

    2.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Taking off from the Promethean myth of human creation, Gillian Sze’s second poetry collection explores the “anatomy of clay” and the individual as a sentient mystery. At times reflective, instructional, playful, or strange, the first section, Quotidianus, offers observational poems, which recount intimate and ordinary moments often missed, overlooked, or forgotten. Sze tugs at the fabric of habit and amidst the urban mundane finds her subjects in a woman waiting for the bus, a neighbour who talks to his plants, a girl smoking after a storm. The following section, Extimacy, takes a lyrical and confessional turn, veering inwards, dealing reflexively with the materiality of inner life: the self as ingredients, the self as experiment, the self as animal and artist. The Anatomy of Clay finds exceptions in the most prosaic conditions and the ineffable distinctions between people, selves, objects, and histories.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherECW Press
    Release dateApr 1, 2011
    ISBN9781554909841
    Anatomy of Clay, The
    Author

    Gillian Sze

    Gillian Sze is the author of multiple poetry collections and children's books, including The Night Is Deep and Wide and My Love for You Is Always. Her work has been nominated for the Quebec Writers Federation’s A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry and has received awards such as the University of Winnipeg Writers’ Circle Prize and the 3Macs carte blanche Prize. Her writing for children has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. Gillian studied creative writing and English literature at Concordia University and received a PhD in études anglaises from the Université de Montréal. Originally from Winnipeg, she now resides in Montreal, where she teaches creative writing and literature.

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      Book preview

      Anatomy of Clay, The - Gillian Sze

      Copyright © Gillian Sze, 2011

      Published by ECW Press

      2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4E 1E2

      416-694-3348 / info@ecwpress.com

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Sze, Gillian, 1985–

      The anatomy of clay / Gillian Sze.

      Poems.

      ISBN 978-1-55490-984-1

      also issued as:

      978-1-55490-937-7 (pdf); 978-1-77041-014-5 (pbk)

      I. Title.

      PS8637.Z425A63 2011 C811’.6 C2010-906833-5

      Editor for the press: Michael Holmes / a misFit book

      Cover design: David Gee

      Cover image: Empty Nest © DNY59

      Typesetting: Troy Cunningham

      The publication of The Anatomy of Clay has been generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $20.1 million in writing and publishing throughout Canada, by the Ontario Arts Council, by the Government of Ontario through Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit, by the OMDC Book Fund, an initiative of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and by the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund.

      One:

      To Love, To Desire, To Destroy

      I affirmed that — for me — personality is a mystery;

      — e. e. cummings

      Fruitful

      We speak of nobility

      like we can dine on it

      We are scared

      tatterdemalion

      hiding behind organdie

      We savour the cool feel

      of the spotted jewelweed,

      crush the leaves to administer

      after playing in poison ivy,

      the convenience that the two grow together

      We hope that the rest of our lives

      could be that propitious

      We are good

      sometimes

      We are all little children still

      stopped on the sidewalk

      calling,

      Wait for me!

      just to test our mothers, our fathers,

      the validity of ourselves

      a good enough reason,

      and every possible slant of love.

      Two:

      Quotidianus

      that mysteries alone are significant;

      — e. e. cummings

      Bun

      They love the way she gathers her hair,

      her fingers minding her hairline,

      combing from the forehead,

      down to the temples,

      behind the ears.

      Yes: she is ordinary, like most people;

      but how lucky they are to witness

      her miss the last tendril,

      the one that sticks to her neck,

      curled like a crescent moon.

      Watching Cars

      He lives in an old

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