The Trees Witness Everything

The Trees Witness Everything is a collection of poems by Victoria Chang that reinvigorates language by using constraint to illuminate and free the wild interior. It is largely composed in various Japanese syllabic forms called wakas, each poem shaped by pattern and count. This highly original work innovates inside the lineage of great poets, depicting the smooth, melancholic isolation of the mind while reaching outward to name the ache of wanting, the hawk and its shadow, and our human urge to hide the minute beneath the light.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 144 pages
Publication date: 05 May 2022
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2022


Impeccable, precise poems, sometimes shocking and strange, but always startling.


Irish Times


A lover of strict form, best-selling poet Victoria Chang turns to compact Japanese waka, powerfully innovating on tradition while continuing her pursuit of one of life's hardest questions: how to let go.


In The Trees Witness Everything, Victoria Chang reinvigorates language by way of concentration, using constraint to illuminate and free the wild interior. Largely composed in various Japanese syllabic forms called wakas, each poem is shaped by pattern and count. This highly original work innovates inside the lineage of great poets including W.S. Merwin, whose poem titles are repurposed as frames and mirrors for the text, stitching past and present in complex dialogue. Chang depicts the smooth, melancholic isolation of the mind while reaching outward to name - with reverence, economy, and whimsy - the ache of wanting, the hawk and its shadow, our human urge to hide the minute beneath the light.

Weight: 136g
Dimension: 228 x 106 x 16 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472157454