A Festschrift for Tony Frazer
  • home
  • poems
    • Timothy Ades
    • Astrid Alben
    • Martin Anderson
    • Isobel Armstrong
    • Michael Ayres
    • Merle Lyn Bachman
    • Rachel Tzvia Back
    • Andre Bagoo
    • Dennis Barone
    • Richard Berengarten
    • Elisabeth Bletsoe
    • Ken Bolton
    • Peter Boyle
    • Hanne Bramness
    • Andrew Brewerton
    • Ian Brinton
    • Andy Brown
    • Pam Brown
    • Carmen Bugan
    • Sean Burn
    • David Caddy
    • Maxine Chernoff
    • Geraldine Clarkson
    • Ken Cockburn & Alec Finlay
    • Peter Cole
    • Susan Connolly
    • Kelvin Corcoran
    • MTC Cronin
    • Elsa Cross
    • Anamaria Crowe Serrano
    • Claire Crowther
    • Martyn Crucefix
    • Ian Davidson
    • Peter Dent
    • Paul Scott Derrick
    • Ray Di Palma
    • Laurie Duggan
    • Jonathan Dunne
    • Susanne Dyckman
    • Tsvetanka Elenkova
    • Helena Eriksson
    • Kjell Espmark
    • Carrie Etter
    • Amy Evans
    • George Evans
    • Gerrie Fellows
    • Peter Finch
    • Norman Finkelstein
    • Roy Fisher
    • Brandel France de Bravo
    • Nancy Gaffield & Patricia Debney
    • Iain Galbraith
    • Angela Gardner
    • Gloria Gervitz
    • Valentino Gianuzzi
    • Harry Gilonis
    • Jim Goar
    • Giles Goodland
    • Mark Goodwin
    • Anne Gorrick
    • Paul A Green
    • Philip Gross
    • Harry Guest
    • Chris Gutkind
    • David Hadbawnik
    • Catherine Hales
    • John Hall
    • Alan Halsey
    • Lucy Hamilton
    • Robert Hampson
    • Penny Harter
    • Michael Haslam
    • Ralph Hawkins
    • Michael Heller
    • Ben Hickman
    • Barry Hill
    • Lynne Hjelmgaard
    • Eric Hoffman
    • Paul Holman
    • Jeremy Hooker
    • Gary Hotham
    • Peter Hughes
    • Judith Infante
    • WD Jackson
    • juli Jana
    • Norman Jope
    • Andrew Jordan
    • Trevor Joyce
    • Alice Kavounas
    • Cralan Kelder
    • Kenny Knight
    • José Kozer
    • Peter Larkin
    • Mary Leader
    • Ágnes Lehóczky
    • Rachel Lehrman
    • Karin Lessing
    • David Lloyd
    • Tony Lopez
    • Tom Lowenstein
    • Rupert M Loydell
    • Julie Maclean
    • Robin Fulton Macpherson
    • Phil Maillard
    • Peter Makin
    • DS Marriott
    • Simon Marsh
    • John Mateer
    • John Matthias
    • Becka Mara McKay
    • Deborah Meadows
    • Valeria Melchioretto
    • Anthony Mellors
    • George Messo
    • Christopher Middleton
    • Alice Miller
    • David Miller
    • Billy Mills
    • William Minor
    • Geraldine Monk
    • Helen Moore
    • John Muckle
    • Paschalis Nikolaou
    • Sonia Overall
    • Rochelle Owens
    • Fani Papageorgiou
    • Sandeep Parmar
    • Alasdair Paterson
    • Chus Pato
    • John Peck
    • Simon Perchik
    • Omar Pérez
    • John Perlman
    • Simon Perril
    • Peter Philpott
    • Frances Presley
    • Ilma Rakusa
    • Elaine Randell
    • Anna Reckin
    • Jeremy Reed
    • Andreas Reimann
    • Peter Riley
    • Eléna Rivera
    • Jaime Robles
    • Paul Rossiter
    • Wendy Saloman
    • Mario Sampaolesi
    • Julie Sampson
    • Lisa Samuels
    • Alexandra Sashe
    • Maurice Scully
    • Ian Seed
    • John Seed
    • Gavin Selerie
    • Aidan Semmens
    • David Sergeant
    • Lorna Shaughnessy
    • Nathan Shepherdson
    • Robert Sheppard
    • Penelope Shuttle
    • Pete Smith
    • Simon Smith
    • Gustaf Sobin
    • Steve Spence
    • Geoffrey Squires
    • Janet Sutherland
    • James Sutherland-Smith
    • Nathaniel Tarn
    • Andrew Taylor
    • Mervyn Taylor
    • Jon Thompson
    • Nathan Thompson
    • Maureen Thorson
    • Isobel Thrilling
    • Scott Thurston
    • Siriol Troup
    • Robert Vas Dias
    • Laura Walker
    • Alan Wall
    • Catherine Walsh
    • Craig Watson
    • Alan Wearne
    • David Wevill
    • JL Williams
    • Yang Lian
    • Tamar Yoseloff
    • Vassilis Zambaras
    • Michael Zand
  • prose
    • Tim Allen
    • Martin Anderson
    • Kate Ashton
    • Christopher Brownsword
    • Jennifer Clement
    • Kelvin Corcoran
    • Andrew Duncan
    • Kristin Dykstra
    • George Economou
    • Ken Edwards
    • Damian Furniss
    • Forrest Gander
    • Lee Harwood
    • John Levy
    • Víctor Manuel Mendiola
    • Peter Robinson
    • Anthony Rudolf
    • Pauline Sanderson
    • Mark Schafer
    • Aidan Semmens
    • Colin Simms
    • Eileen Tabios
    • Robert Vas Dias
    • Lynda Waters
    • Mark Weiss
    • John Welch
    • Nigel Wheale
    • Augustus Young
  • artwork
    • Anthony Barnett
    • Linda Black
    • Thomas A Clark
    • Patricia Farrell
    • Julian Frazer
    • Anna Glazova
    • Rupert M Loydell
    • Jill Magi
    • James McLaughlin
    • Sam Sampson
    • Spencer Selby
  • photos
    • of Tony
    • of the launch party
  • av
    • Marc Atkins
    • Jennifer Firestone
    • Lucy Sheerman
    • Will Stone
  • editorial
    • tributes
    • about tony
    • acknowledgements
  • contact
EMERALD CITY

(verdegris/bronze) (Li Shang-yin)


Emerald City   I


emerald city, twelve cerulean gates


dust dispelled (shivering breath)

book flies (leaves wings) to high halls

no tree lacks its dragon (the myth)

stars sink below the ocean's floor

rain, vaporous, riding over river's source

dawn breaking forever now

waves' crystal reflection . . . is world



Emerald City  II


lids lift to see her shadow / mirrored

thick stems (lotus) in waves' froth

". . . if you meet an immortal on the road . . ."

no, not, nowhere / forever were

myth-wings, gold on a silky wrist

bow turning scales … already reflections … 

(Prince O soundless, still, inside his boat

under the piled, embroidered quilts)




Emerald City III


through, into, opened, was; forever ended

revolving doors clatter shut

the hare-in-the-moon watches all wane

under shallow grey, crushed wraiths

world thick, suspended, 

the myth breaking "for so / 

little" – voices rasp, lids turned: 

it's world, pronged, and
set against our heart



  • These poems are way after the three untitled poems by the T'ang dynasty Chinese poet Li Shang-yin (813-858 AD), known by their opening words, Emerald City…” or "Emerald Walls…”.  (More conventional/scholarly translations can be found in A.C. Graham's 1973 Penguin Classic Poems of the Late T'ang.) These almost baroque poems are rich in arcane Taoist and other mythological lore, but (it has been argued) this conceals a more everyday tale of the waxing, consummation, and waning of a love-affair. They provide a major source of imagery for Gustaf Sobin's poem 'BRONZE', subtitled 'An Exercise in Style’, with the further gloss "(Li Shang-Yin)’; this was published in Sobin’s Celebration of the Sound Through  (New York, 1982). Sobin’s poem has here been folded back into my 'faithless' versions of the Chinese originals. These new poems are for Tony Frazer, with affection, and in recognition of his early championing of Gustaf Sobin's work. 

Harry Gilonis

Martin Anderson adds:
  • As Harry Gilonis notes, the poem ‘Bronze An Exercise in Style’ was included in Sobin’s Celebration of the Sound Through (1982). This was Sobin’s second volume of poetry published by the journal Montemora, edited by Eliot Weinberger, as a supplement: the first was Wind Chrysalid’s Rattle (1980). Tony included a sizeable sampling of Sobin’s poetry in the very first edition of Shearsman magazine in 1981. He followed this up, like Weinberger, with a supplement to Shearsman magazine in the same year: Sobin's Ceasurae:Midsummer. This was followed by numerous appearances of Sobin's poetry in the magazine, the first short study of Sobin’s poetry by the late Phillip Crick and two more chapbooks; Carnets 1974-1982 (1984) and Blown Letters, Driven Alphabets (1994). In addition Shearsman and Oasis (under the late Ian Robinson) jointly published Sobin’s chapbook Nile (1984). Tony regarded Sobin’s work very highly indeed and he did his best to promote it and bring it to the attention of as many others as possible. It is quite unlike anything else written by an American (or any other poet writing in English) in the last quarter of the twentieth century. I am sure I am not alone in being grateful to Tony for bringing Sobin’s work to my attention. I am sure that, if he were alive, Gustaf would have had no hesitation whatsoever in contributing to this Festschrift for Tony. Like others he was a beneficiary of Tony’s largesse. It seems only appropriate, therefore, that we include Sobin’s early Bronze An Exercise in Style, along with the Gilonis contribution which was generated by it, as Sobin’s own tribute to Tony.
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.