A Gateway Has Opened
Liam Blackford
A Gateway Has Opened is a poetry collection by Hong Kong-based poet, LIAM BLACKFORD, containing 36 missives on truth and reality, anger and rage, complexity and change, and power as manifested in people, corporations, governments, borders and cultures. The poems inhabit a chaotic and psychedelic world where water flows into the sky, nightclubs have hundreds of floors and where banks and malls publish theories on knowledge and personhood. Therein, human society is fraught with harm and violence but also euphoric with the widening horizons of possibility. The collection is notable for its strict adherence to a unique poetic form (each poem has six stanzas, each stanza with six lines, and each line with six syllables), which in its red-eyed absoluteness suggests that the poems are giving voice to an alien, an angel or a machine. Though avant-garde and philosophical, the collection is highly reflective of the poet’s place and time, in which Hong Kong is at the epicentre of epochal political and cultural change.
“The poems ... ‘quiver with tension’ as the speaker straddles the liminal space between dreams and the mundane.” —Ryan Fenton. “In Blackford’s verse, one is in our world, with its political and environmental anxieties, with its affluence and parallel unease.”―Andrew S. Guthrie, Proverse Prize Finalist 2013. “... what bubbles beneath the surface is the courage to find astounding beauty and inspiration amidst confounding and cruelty, and hold them both.” —Jack Mayer, Winner of the Proverse Prize 2019. “...unique explorations of poetic form.”—Philip Mead, Emeritus Professor, University of Western Australia. “Blackford’s worlds are jarring and harsh; psychedelic yet pungent with our reality. His strict form is muscular and fascinating. Gateway seethes with energy – I loved it.”―David West, Western Australia.
Duration - 58m.
Author - Liam Blackford.
Narrator - Liam Blackford.
Published Date - Sunday, 22 January 2023.
Copyright - © 2021 Proverse Hong Kong ©.
Location:
United States
Networks:
Liam Blackford
Proverse Publication Prize
Proverse Hong Kong
English Audiobooks
Findaway Audiobooks
Description:
A Gateway Has Opened is a poetry collection by Hong Kong-based poet, LIAM BLACKFORD, containing 36 missives on truth and reality, anger and rage, complexity and change, and power as manifested in people, corporations, governments, borders and cultures. The poems inhabit a chaotic and psychedelic world where water flows into the sky, nightclubs have hundreds of floors and where banks and malls publish theories on knowledge and personhood. Therein, human society is fraught with harm and violence but also euphoric with the widening horizons of possibility. The collection is notable for its strict adherence to a unique poetic form (each poem has six stanzas, each stanza with six lines, and each line with six syllables), which in its red-eyed absoluteness suggests that the poems are giving voice to an alien, an angel or a machine. Though avant-garde and philosophical, the collection is highly reflective of the poet’s place and time, in which Hong Kong is at the epicentre of epochal political and cultural change. “The poems ... ‘quiver with tension’ as the speaker straddles the liminal space between dreams and the mundane.” —Ryan Fenton. “In Blackford’s verse, one is in our world, with its political and environmental anxieties, with its affluence and parallel unease.”―Andrew S. Guthrie, Proverse Prize Finalist 2013. “... what bubbles beneath the surface is the courage to find astounding beauty and inspiration amidst confounding and cruelty, and hold them both.” —Jack Mayer, Winner of the Proverse Prize 2019. “...unique explorations of poetic form.”—Philip Mead, Emeritus Professor, University of Western Australia. “Blackford’s worlds are jarring and harsh; psychedelic yet pungent with our reality. His strict form is muscular and fascinating. Gateway seethes with energy – I loved it.”―David West, Western Australia. Duration - 58m. Author - Liam Blackford. Narrator - Liam Blackford. Published Date - Sunday, 22 January 2023. Copyright - © 2021 Proverse Hong Kong ©.
Language:
English
Opening Credits
Duration:00:00:14
Title
Duration:00:00:03
Prior publication acknowledgements
Duration:00:00:16
Author’s acknowledgements
Duration:00:01:15
1. SIX VISIONS OF FREEDOM
Duration:00:00:03
1. 1. Two men
Duration:00:01:26
1. 2. Moving with total ease
Duration:00:01:10
1. 3. The model of the world
Duration:00:01:08
1. 4. On my face is an eye
Duration:00:01:17
1. 5. A steel vertical pole
Duration:00:01:21
1. 6. I emerge reformed
Duration:00:01:16
2. SIX VISIONS OF NO ONE
Duration:00:00:03
2. 1. Three black, three grey
Duration:00:01:11
2. 2. The water column
Duration:00:01:12
2. 3. Eighteen streams of water
Duration:00:01:33
2. 4. Six scenes of water
Duration:00:01:16
2. 5. Six gateways
Duration:00:01:27
2. 6. Six borders
Duration:00:01:10
3. SIX DREAMS OF VIOLENCE
Duration:00:00:03
3. 1. Danger
Duration:00:01:28
3. 2. Rage
Duration:00:01:14
3. 3. Domination
Duration:00:01:17
3. 4. Anxiety
Duration:00:01:19
3. 5. Shame
Duration:00:01:26
3. 6. Judgment
Duration:00:01:19
4. SIX VISIONS OF CHINA
Duration:00:00:04
4. 1. China bank of truth
Duration:00:01:11
4. 2. China banks of order, safety and power
Duration:00:01:15
4. 3. The mall of china
Duration:00:01:06
4. 4. Three nightclubs
Duration:00:01:14
4. 5. China banks of science, praxis and progress
Duration:00:01:11
4. 6. China banks of measure, balance and control
Duration:00:01:18
5. SIX SPIRITS WALK THE EARTH
Duration:00:00:04
5. 1. The mangrove spirit
Duration:00:01:21
5. 2. The beach spirit
Duration:00:01:12
5. 3. The bush spirit
Duration:00:01:09
5. 4. The river spirit
Duration:00:01:17
5. 5. The dune spirit
Duration:00:01:08
5. 6. The cave spirit
Duration:00:01:17
6. SIX VISIONS OF OUR WORLD
Duration:00:00:03
6. 1. The cyclops of culture
Duration:00:01:13
6. 2. The data ego
Duration:00:01:06
6. 3. Risks
Duration:00:01:08
6. 4. Fire (Australia summer 2019)
Duration:00:01:19
6. 5. Water (Hong Kong summer 2019)
Duration:00:01:15
6. 6. The mind is a raindish
Duration:00:01:16
7. 1. Author’s notes
Duration:00:00:40
7. 2. Afterword
Duration:00:01:19
8. ADVANCE COMMENTS
Duration:00:00:06
8.1. By David West, Australia
Duration:00:00:31
8.2. By Philip Mead, Australia
Duration:00:01:30
8.3. By Jack Mayer, Vermont, USA
Duration:00:03:32
8.4. By Ryan Fenton, Hong Kong
Duration:00:01:47
8.5. Andrew S. Guthrie, Europe
Duration:00:01:35
Ending Credits
Duration:00:00:24