This is the Colour I Love You Best by Gillian Sze
Gillian Sze’s chapbook, This is the Colour I Love You Best, is absolutely beautiful, and it makes me regret everything negative I’ve ever said about poetry. Published by WithWords Press and featuring illustrations by Roberutsu (aka Robert Huynh), this short volume of break-up poems isn’t so easily pinned down in a single phrase. Sure, these are poems about love lost, hearts broken and a life turned upside-down, but they’re not the kinds of clichés that we often get in reference to the death of a relationship. Sze works her magic with a variety of influences and styles, and ultimately creates the perfect book for anyone who has recently—or ever—suffered through a break-up. My favourite is part five of “Dido,” which takes a fragment from Sappho and creates a new shard to ponder:
She wrapped herself well in gossamer garments,
her knees tucked against her chest,
forehead pounding against the floor,
and denied any recognition
of the traces he left behind.
My fiancé’s favourite was “Mama’s Smell,” a poem about the kinds of images and memories that a certain scent can bring forth. Sze’s images are always fresh yet somehow familiar, the kinds of things we can all identify with, and it’s this universality that gives her poetry its strength.
Poetry gets no respect in our attention deficit disordered world, and that’s a damn shame because Sze’s work is definitely worth reading. At just under 50 pages, you can certainly find the time to slip a bit of Sze’s world into your own, and I can tell you it’s well worth the effort.
Copies of This is the Colour I Love You Best are available for purchase at the Concordia Community Solidarity Co-op Bookstore (2150 Bishop) or online via the WithWords website. Gillian Sze’s second chapbook, A Tender Invention, will be launched with Jason Camlot’s book, The Fruit Man and Other Poems, on Monday March 17 at 6:30 pm at Kafeïn (1429 Bishop).
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