"Succulent in its excellence, Sze's poetry insists that cultural
'difference' is what can make a beautiful difference in our apprehension
of the 'beautiful.'" -- George Elliott Clarke on Peeling Rambutan In
Panicle, Gillian Sze makes her readers look and, more importantly, look
again. It's a collection that challenges our notion of seeing as a
passive or automatic activity by asking us to question the process of
looking. The book's first section, "Underway," deals with the moving
image and includes both poetic responses to film theory and lyrical long
poems while also reimagining fairy tales. The next section, "Stagings,"
takes its inspiration from the still image and explores a wide range of
periods, movements, and media. Sze's focus on the process of looking
anticipates "Guillemets," a creative translation of Roland Giguère's
1966 chapbook, Pouvoir du Noir, which contains a series of poems
accompanied by his own paintings. Sze's approach to Giguère is two-fold:
she "translates" his text, and artist Jessica Hiemstra provides a visual
response to her translation. The final section, "Panicle," continues the
meditative quality of "Guillemets" in a suite of poems that ruminate on
nature, desire, and history.
