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e.Cocoon: Information Obsession
Simply too much information
Disinformation
Misinformation
Sysinformation
To delete from my inbox
To empty from my recycle bin
To decocoon my informed inner being
Oh, just for a single moment of truth offline
Attention Addiction
Whose is this life as, between wake and dream
We spend every other minute looking at a screen?
Every other minute checking a message from
A friend, relative, total stranger or machine
Every other minute responding to a hail
Which turns out nothing but a junk mail
Every other minute continuing to search for info
Just to find the website stopped operation long ago
Every other minute trying to finish a game
Before the battery is finally running out
Every other minute watching the video
As real drama is unfolding around us
Every other minute returning to an article
Written & uploaded by a misbehaving robot
Not our whole life this as, between wake and dream
We spend every other minute looking at a screen!
e.
Dictatorship
Isn’t it crazy, exactly like this
To stop to take out this e.gadget
& smuggle a guilty look even in the middle of
Driving straight into a bloody crash
Making an official speech to a huge audience
Attending a funeral service, wording
A Zen epiphany into a stanza, or cooking
A hot dish. Really crazy! Like this I am totally
Enslaved by this palm machine, whose
Very agitation calls for immediate
Attendance like a master yelling at his slave
Yes, my attention is dictated thus, 24 hours
A day, seven days a week. Every few minutes
At each ring, blink or vibration, always
Unexpectedly, I cannot wait to check
What pops up on the screen, even if it is no more than
A wechat image of a stranger, a recorded marketing
Message, or a truncated call by mistake, lol
The Meditation Master Takes a Nap
As he began to sit like a frog by crossing his legs
On each other, he found his mind lost in a cloud
Wandering nowhere between here and there; he then
Withdrew his vision from the skyline of the city
To the cool fire burning in his belly; listening
To the whistling and whishing of traffic, he heard only
His own pulse. With the breeze came the odor of garlic
Fish and mutton from a nearby home, but he held his
Breath long, while leaving all his inner doors
And windows ajar, letting his sensations travel freely
He believed in Qi, which was circulating with his blood
And his feeling and his thought. The light dimmed
A baby crow was flapping by. He led his whole selfhood
To a temple among puti trees within his yellowish
Skin. That was all the harmony of yin and yang he knows
The Chinese Character: A Classic Sketch
When a child, he is his own natural self
In spirit, the true father of the man. Once
He grows up, he becomes a close follower
Of Confucianism, seeking every chance to
Serve his emperor or his people in deed. As
He is getting newly old, he turns to Taoism
In heart, trying to linger long with Nature
And before he dies, he will convert himself
To Buddhism, hoping to outlive karma
That’s how we were all born to grow, age and die
That’s all within and without our yellowish skin
Insomnia
Nobody likes insomnia, but I do
Indeed, for a night or two, even several
In a run, when there is no wifely
Disturbance, I would love to count
Ants against all the stars in my
Mind, to practice meditation with
My entire inner being, to hypnotize
My conscious self by evoking a streamlet
Of blue water from heaven and letting it
Infuse every cell in my body from top to toe
Second by second, to wrack my brain hard
For the wording of a line like this one, or more
Enjoyably, to visualize going alone
To an African forest, where I constantly wish
To go and die like a white elephant, until I become
Too relaxed or too exhausted
To remain awake
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
Simply too much information
Disinformation
Misinformation
Sysinformation
To delete from my inbox
To empty from my recycle bin
To decocoon my informed inner being
Oh, just for a single moment of truth offline
Attention Addiction
Whose is this life as, between wake and dream
We spend every other minute looking at a screen?
Every other minute checking a message from
A friend, relative, total stranger or machine
Every other minute responding to a hail
Which turns out nothing but a junk mail
Every other minute continuing to search for info
Just to find the website stopped operation long ago
Every other minute trying to finish a game
Before the battery is finally running out
Every other minute watching the video
As real drama is unfolding around us
Every other minute returning to an article
Written & uploaded by a misbehaving robot
Not our whole life this as, between wake and dream
We spend every other minute looking at a screen!
e.
Dictatorship
Isn’t it crazy, exactly like this
To stop to take out this e.gadget
& smuggle a guilty look even in the middle of
Driving straight into a bloody crash
Making an official speech to a huge audience
Attending a funeral service, wording
A Zen epiphany into a stanza, or cooking
A hot dish. Really crazy! Like this I am totally
Enslaved by this palm machine, whose
Very agitation calls for immediate
Attendance like a master yelling at his slave
Yes, my attention is dictated thus, 24 hours
A day, seven days a week. Every few minutes
At each ring, blink or vibration, always
Unexpectedly, I cannot wait to check
What pops up on the screen, even if it is no more than
A wechat image of a stranger, a recorded marketing
Message, or a truncated call by mistake, lol
The Meditation Master Takes a Nap
As he began to sit like a frog by crossing his legs
On each other, he found his mind lost in a cloud
Wandering nowhere between here and there; he then
Withdrew his vision from the skyline of the city
To the cool fire burning in his belly; listening
To the whistling and whishing of traffic, he heard only
His own pulse. With the breeze came the odor of garlic
Fish and mutton from a nearby home, but he held his
Breath long, while leaving all his inner doors
And windows ajar, letting his sensations travel freely
He believed in Qi, which was circulating with his blood
And his feeling and his thought. The light dimmed
A baby crow was flapping by. He led his whole selfhood
To a temple among puti trees within his yellowish
Skin. That was all the harmony of yin and yang he knows
The Chinese Character: A Classic Sketch
When a child, he is his own natural self
In spirit, the true father of the man. Once
He grows up, he becomes a close follower
Of Confucianism, seeking every chance to
Serve his emperor or his people in deed. As
He is getting newly old, he turns to Taoism
In heart, trying to linger long with Nature
And before he dies, he will convert himself
To Buddhism, hoping to outlive karma
That’s how we were all born to grow, age and die
That’s all within and without our yellowish skin
Insomnia
Nobody likes insomnia, but I do
Indeed, for a night or two, even several
In a run, when there is no wifely
Disturbance, I would love to count
Ants against all the stars in my
Mind, to practice meditation with
My entire inner being, to hypnotize
My conscious self by evoking a streamlet
Of blue water from heaven and letting it
Infuse every cell in my body from top to toe
Second by second, to wrack my brain hard
For the wording of a line like this one, or more
Enjoyably, to visualize going alone
To an African forest, where I constantly wish
To go and die like a white elephant, until I become
Too relaxed or too exhausted
To remain awake
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
