Transience

      

By Yuan Changming

Transience   Standing by a river, seeing How the water moved along Heraclitus said, No man ever Steps in the same river twice While Confucius exclaimed Time passes by just like this Flowing away day and night   Though both sages were Keenly aware of the constant Change in the river, neither Spotted the unseen islet in it Where any one may live still in The moment as if on Sommaroy Let alone foresaw this modern fact:     While our world is so full of     Sundials, hourglasses, clocks     & watches, not a single second     Can be found from amongst them Home vs Hotel: for Qi Hong     We are all looking for a home to Our inner selves, but can find no Such place anywhere, except in a Hotel, where your wandering soul May dwell just for a moment with The right person on the right spot   Where’s My True Home             In Vancouver, I have my Home in the right place But with the wrong person   At the hotel, I have you As the right home to me But in the wrong place   In Jingzhou, I have my mother As my right home in the Right place, but I feel wrong Facts to Be Fictionalised   Bury facts deep So that in the future   Nothing could be dug out From underneath the ruins of history   But in these moments when words still hold An ephemeral wind arises, blowing   Across the mind Stories are spreading everywhere   Told and retold within a larger story Are but an entire other era Permanence Only in the Moment   For now let’s forget all troubles & miseries In this world of red dust, forsake our family & Friends alike, forgive each & every other’s debts   & wrongdoings as well as our own sins; for now Let’s not get stuck to our pasts or try squeezing Into our futures, foreseeable or otherwise   Where we may easily become too lost in Character as in imagination; for now, just Let it be, including everything & everybody   While the little cloud above the horizon drifts Along, & the tiny fish keeps bubbling on & off In the creek; for now let’s stop & separate   Our selfhoods from our minds, observe how They are making whims & wishes, & watch How they become conditioned by concepts &   Constructs; for now let’s stay put as the hand- Written book of history is being torn off Page by page, until we find our innermost   Being in the heart of our soul at a crowded Corner; & let’s take off our masks, identities Even consciousnesses as if we were peeling off   An onion, though we may find nothing for now Here in This Antlike Moment   Here in this antlike moment Arise my spirits Illuminating my own shadow   They’re up against the dark cloud Ready to join in a heavy storm Shooting like a thunder   Now I see the unlimited sky Besides the cracking light Now I know my transience       Bio:     Yuan Changming edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan. Credits include 15 chapbooks, 12 Pushcart nominations for poetry and 2 for fiction besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline and 2109 other publications across 51 countries. A poetry judge for Canada's 44th national magazine awards, Yuan began writing fiction in 2022; with his debut novel Detaching recently released at https://www.amazon.com/Detaching-Yuan-Changming/dp/B0DCNN474N, and his duology Mabakoola: Paradise Regained forthcoming in 2025.   -y at poetrypacific.blogspot.ca