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Gathering
Sitting at the every table
Is a rearranged array
Of familiar shapes of
Strange bodies (or
Strange shapes of
Familiar bodies)
Silhouetting boisterously
Against night. Reflecting
From the glass are
Different colors of your
Friends’ voices speaking
From disparate distances
One from Vancouver, another
From Jingzhou, a third from
Melbourne. When the party
Ends in the midnight
They’ll all withdraw into
Ghostly existences, some-
Where as far away from
The present as from
This spot of being
Like one of your whims
Bubbling only to break
Love Unravelled
You have never had enough of love
Such as for Qi Hong, for Yiming
For Liao Hengxiang, as well
As for the pepper, acorn tofu & carpcakes
From your native village in Jinzhou
For music, light or classic, for songs
Sung by humans and birds alike
For poetry by Su dongpo, by Guo Xiaochuan
By John Keats, by Lorna Crozier
For the hills at Zhangjiajie, the water
In Lake Louise, the trees & flowers anywhere
For whatever is truth or beauty, just as you have fallen
Passionately in love (again) with someone
After 42 years of separation, in
Deed, you never run short of love
For a human being as for nature
Be she a standing for herself
Or for the whole human race
Natural Syllogism & Zen Epiphany
When I was a country lad in Mayuhe
I saw both the mountain as it looked
& you as Xisi, the beauty in my eyes
Well on my journey towards Taoist Dao
I recalled the mountain fitfully as it turned out
And you as one of the prettiest girls ever seen
Now almost at my final destination
I have come to realize the mountain as is
& you as my soulmate, or first & last love
Unravelling Love in Insomnia
In this
Expansive
Moment of
Post-midnight
There are all
The muted
Sounds of
Thought
Hauling
An indefinitely
Prolonged
Trail of feel
Like a train
Running with
Endless cars
On a rail
Stretching afar
Beyond
The morning glow
Final Finding: the True Worth of My Life
Ever since retirement, I’ve been trying to
Examine & re-examine my life
In hope of digging some worth
As Socrates has advised us to
Alas, to my great embarrassment, I find
I am neither smart nor handsome, desirous
Of everything but good at nothing, thus
Having done nothing special, made no
Contributions to society, let alone history
Time and again, I cannot help wondering:
How have I managed to survive in so many years
Without being good at anything at all…?
Aha, after years of thinking
I now know the reason lies
In the way I am always good at
Eating & & excreting
In particular
I was gifted with human rights!
[Author’s note: this group of unravelling poems is inspired by Helena Qi Hong (祁红).]
Bio:
Born and bred in an isolated Chinese village, Yuan Changming holds a Canadian PhD in English and co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include 16 chapbooks, 12 Pushcart nominations for poetry and 3 for fiction besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline and 2129 other publications across 51 countries. Yuan began writing and publishing fiction in 2022, his debut (hybrid) novel Detaching and 'silver romance' The Tuner both published recently by Alien Buddha Press.
Sitting at the every table
Is a rearranged array
Of familiar shapes of
Strange bodies (or
Strange shapes of
Familiar bodies)
Silhouetting boisterously
Against night. Reflecting
From the glass are
Different colors of your
Friends’ voices speaking
From disparate distances
One from Vancouver, another
From Jingzhou, a third from
Melbourne. When the party
Ends in the midnight
They’ll all withdraw into
Ghostly existences, some-
Where as far away from
The present as from
This spot of being
Like one of your whims
Bubbling only to break
Love Unravelled
You have never had enough of love
Such as for Qi Hong, for Yiming
For Liao Hengxiang, as well
As for the pepper, acorn tofu & carpcakes
From your native village in Jinzhou
For music, light or classic, for songs
Sung by humans and birds alike
For poetry by Su dongpo, by Guo Xiaochuan
By John Keats, by Lorna Crozier
For the hills at Zhangjiajie, the water
In Lake Louise, the trees & flowers anywhere
For whatever is truth or beauty, just as you have fallen
Passionately in love (again) with someone
After 42 years of separation, in
Deed, you never run short of love
For a human being as for nature
Be she a standing for herself
Or for the whole human race
Natural Syllogism & Zen Epiphany
When I was a country lad in Mayuhe
I saw both the mountain as it looked
& you as Xisi, the beauty in my eyes
Well on my journey towards Taoist Dao
I recalled the mountain fitfully as it turned out
And you as one of the prettiest girls ever seen
Now almost at my final destination
I have come to realize the mountain as is
& you as my soulmate, or first & last love
Unravelling Love in Insomnia
In this
Expansive
Moment of
Post-midnight
There are all
The muted
Sounds of
Thought
Hauling
An indefinitely
Prolonged
Trail of feel
Like a train
Running with
Endless cars
On a rail
Stretching afar
Beyond
The morning glow
Final Finding: the True Worth of My Life
Ever since retirement, I’ve been trying to
Examine & re-examine my life
In hope of digging some worth
As Socrates has advised us to
Alas, to my great embarrassment, I find
I am neither smart nor handsome, desirous
Of everything but good at nothing, thus
Having done nothing special, made no
Contributions to society, let alone history
Time and again, I cannot help wondering:
How have I managed to survive in so many years
Without being good at anything at all…?
Aha, after years of thinking
I now know the reason lies
In the way I am always good at
Eating & & excreting
In particular
I was gifted with human rights!
[Author’s note: this group of unravelling poems is inspired by Helena Qi Hong (祁红).]
Bio:
Born and bred in an isolated Chinese village, Yuan Changming holds a Canadian PhD in English and co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include 16 chapbooks, 12 Pushcart nominations for poetry and 3 for fiction besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline and 2129 other publications across 51 countries. Yuan began writing and publishing fiction in 2022, his debut (hybrid) novel Detaching and 'silver romance' The Tuner both published recently by Alien Buddha Press.
