memory
seemingly fresh seemingly full this cup of coffee slightly sweetened with a tasty lump of time drink it too eagerly your might get your lips burned sip it too slowly you could completely lose its flavor watch it too closely you would find only a dark reflection deformed strangely how come Just how Come: you Me? She Us? I You? He Them? One Her? We You? It Us? They Him/her? Who whom? recalling The very idea of you Tangoing afar As in an entanglement With that of me Beating tranquility Of two rainbow-like hearts Hung in the sky, crying aloud In one and the same muted voice: I miss you Since that summer We jumped naked Into the fond pond Of our boyhoods Where we loved to Loll and wallow Like playing dogs Chasing frogs madly around From one lotus leaf to another Our pants beside the muddy path Blown far away In a hot and humid dream the tree and the marble My father planted a little Chinese poplar Close to the bank of the Yangtze River Where I buried deep under that tree A glass marble treasured by my childhood Long long afterward, I find the tree dying Though its seeds all blown away somewhere While my marble has really grown Into a magic tree in the heart of a friend Memorial Splendors the moment i squeezed into this world, i discovered that there was a quite big difference between light and darkness; the day my mom stopped breastfeeding me, i discovered that i could use my own toothless mouth to intake food and satisfy my hunger; at age 5, i discovered that the colorful marbles i had buried deep in the backyard of my house would never grow to be a magic tree as i had expected; when i was 7, i discovered that the gas emitted by a running truck had a peculiarly pleasant smell; at 11, i discovered that during drowning my body felt much lighter and more resilient than my spirit; at 14, i discovered that poetry looked very beautiful when i saw it with my mind’s eye; at 17, i discovered that i could say "down with chairman mao" in my heart without running any risk of being discovered and thus put into jail as a counter-revolutionary, as in the case of one of my classmates who had happened to misspell mao's name during a spelling quiz; at 22, i discovered that just as a political commissar could change my outer life permanantely, a charming girl could alter my inner being once and for all; at 28, i discovered that fathering a child was a joy forever; at 35, i discovered that many of my childhood dreams had actually come true without my knowing it; at 39, i discovered that a rented room was never a home, while a house of my own was nothing less than a whole climate of heart; at 47, i discovered that poetry was the religion i had been trying to convert myself to; at 49, i discovered that it was much easier to change or reform myself than anyone else, even my wife's little habit to leave her toothbrush and toothpaste around after use; since my last birthday, i have discovered that there are numerous new and interesting discoveries waiting for me to make... encountering: for Ho Ran On our way to the Louise Lake We saw a baby deer crossing the highway Of our hearts; we knew nothing about her Nor did she even bother to notice us But her tender and graceful shape has ever Remained standing there, like yours Even long after our Banff tour ended At a bus stop before the church on a mountaintop Once in a while, just to reenact memories The mind sets forth beyond itself and its environment Travelling afar. He cries like a rooster: Cock-a-doodle-doo. Cocks do not coo, but I will If only the mind could raise itself to the top Of a mountain, whirling upwards, joining the glows In the east. Instead it falls slowly and softly To the ground, drifting around, finally Settling down at the mouth of a tremendous cave It was meant for, near nothing that is recalled And never is there a shadow, let alone a shadow’s Shadow, as Plato sees it, reflecting the inside Ventifacted out there at a spot of oblivion, where The passer-by wonders how it happened To be, and be there as if never had been Yuan Changming published monographs on translation before leaving China. Currently, Yuan edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include ten Pushcart nominations, eight chapbooks (most recent one being East Idioms [cyberwit.net, 2020]) & publications in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17) & BestNewPoemsOnline, among 1639 others across 44 countries. Lotus Image & License: Depositphotos_32738103_s-2015 |
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