Artwork by Thomas Nozkowski
The second in Saturnalia Books Poet/Artist Collaboration Series
“Book of the Year” by Small Press Traffic in San Francisco
$16.00 Paper, 978-0-9754990-2-3
2005 • 80 pp. 21 illus. 6 3/4 x 9"
•Reviews•
•Excerpt•
•Author and Artist•
Reviews:
“'Swift perception of the relation between things is the hallmark of genius,' said Aristotle—or so Pound remarked. In these singular poems, that elation becomes a complexly articulate play between all such things and the names our common habit gives them. Genius John Yau is the only conductor imaginable for this brilliant train of wildly divergent thought."
—Robert Creeley
“There is no mistaking Yau's exceptional talent (or Nozkowkis') in this unusual and beautiful book.”
—Sima Rabinowitz, Dragonfire
from ING GRISH
I never learned Singlish
I cannot speak Taglish, but I have registered
the tonal shifts of Dumglish, Bumglish, and Scumglish
I do not know Ing Grish, but I will study it down to its
black and broken bones
I do not know Ing Gwish, but I speak dung and dungaree,
satrap and claptrap
Today I speak barbecue and canoe
Today I speak running dog and yellow dog
I do not know Spin Gloss, but I hear humdrum and humdinger,
bugaboo and jigaboo
I do not know Ang Grish, but I can tell you that my last name
consists of three letters, and that technically all of them are vowels
I do not know Um Glish, but I do know how to eat with two sticks
Oh but I do know English because my father’s mother was English
and because my father was born in New York in 1921
and was able to return to America in 1949
and become a citizen
I no speak Chinee, Chanel, or Cheyenne
I do know English because I am able to tell others
that I am not who they think I am
I do not know Chinese because my mother said that I refused to learn it
from the moment I was born, and that my refusal
was one of the greatest sorrows of her life,
the other being the birth of my brother
I do know Chinese because I understood what my mother’s friend told her
one Sunday morning, shortly after she sat down for tea:
“I hope you don’t mind that I parked my helicopter on your roof.”
...
John Yau is a well-known poet, critic, and editor. He has published many books of poems, most recently Paradiso Diaspora, and several works of prose, as well as monographs on the work of Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and A. R. Penck. His poetry and criticism have been published in dozens of national magazines. The recipient of numerous awards, including being named a Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters by France, Yau teaches at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.
Thomas Nozkowski, a Guggenheim fellow and recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for painting, has had over sixty one-person shows.
Barry Schwabsky is the author of books Opera: Poems 1981-2002 and [ways], a collaboration with Korean artist Hong Seung-Hye, are published by Meritage Press, San Francisco.
