Reviewed on 2/2/2026
★★★★★
I suddenly had somewhere everywhere to be.
“Scimitar” gives shape to the profound gravity of our presence in the ordinary. Arthur Sze begins with an ethereal depiction of his orchard: “white-winged doves coo back and forth.” Simple colors and movements of “blue” and “white” create an otherworldly touch, which is vocalized through pleasurable sounds (“while white-winged”; “blue spruce” and “coo”). He continues by wandering in negative spaces — “rainforest” and “New Guinea” — he did not visit. Through the exotic natural wonders of “neon-green mushroom” and “birdwing butterflies,” Sze injects weight and richness of meaning into his present surroundings. The simple beauty of the snow orchard feels transformative: “red coral/ in the sea” contrasted the “glowing/ neon-green.”
“Near the scimitar of a moon/ Venus shimmered.” Here, “scimitar” represents the rich purity of the stillness and the mundane. Sze celebrates not great discoveries, but small and quiet nuances of life that manifest infinite possibilities and speak to a larger spiritual existence. As the speaker “shoveled snow onto/ a strawberry bed,” the “dove cooed” again. Underneath these seemingly cyclical acts lies a sacred energy: Sometimes, we desensitize ourselves to the temperatures of waters we wade through, but the beauty of life awaits in our appreciation of the exact rivers and seas that nurtured us. You can be connected to the entire universe when you are present in the moment, just where you are.
Full Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/1740109/scimitar
Leave a Reply