Syllables from the Sky

      

By Yuan Changming

Syllables from the Sky   With wet syllables, spring lines fall down From above, thin, transparent   So many they fill in all spaces So many when animals and objects   Move around. The lines cut themselves Into corresponding shapes. Like those   Printed in a traditional Chinese book. From Top to bottom, from right to left   Line beside line, each to the earth Each with a slanting trail of ellipsis   Everywhere on the ground, they gather Into pools, streams, rivers. Everywhere   They become oval syllables Spelt into a whole splashing season     A Nest to Dwell in   A bird flies back to a nest That closes on the vowel The vowel is I   Each time it chirrups It reminds of my other self So the bird cannot live With its voice in the nest             Into my thought, feeling, breathing             You will leave your soul behind             In the nest that is larger, more             Self-contained than the forest   Being Happy/Mindful   Let I be me, let me be nobody, and Let all pasts and futures be a void, then   Focus your consciousness Right on the present moment Open every cell to receive cosmic light   And we get the desired result as the whole Universe conspires to make it come true   You Are Nobody   Come on, don’t put on airs, but just get rid of all Your masks or make-ups, including your clothing Be they for god or devil, for crown or clown, and Lower-case your first person pronoun: indeed You are neither the most powerful leader of others Nor the humblest boss of yourself; you are neither The shining star on the stage, nor even the speaker, the teacher The doctor, the driver, the constructor, the programmer The prize winner or whatever you think, you claim, or Your hope you are. You are nothing more or less than One of billions of humans who need to process food In your belly on a daily basis, who have to deal with your Emotions on each occasion, who wish to live a happy and Healthy life. Such being the case, aren’t you tired of Pretending someone bloated like a bubble, why not just crawl out Of your thick slough for a fresh breath in another open field?   I Love This; Jesus, I Really Do   Yes, you’ve just had a terrible car crash You broke both of your legs You were laid off last night You lost all your files saved in your hard drive Your only child has just died of an unknown disease Your wife has eloped with a rich and handsome boy You have not been able to sleep for more than a week Your sick father has just turned a plant being Your eyes cannot see any longer You become bankrupt today Your bad cough is getting dramatically worse You find yourself a new cancer patient You are being tortured by an evil interrogator Or…. no problem, but you still have at least one remarkable reason To celebrate: you remain alive, and so long As this is true, you will be rewarded, sooner or later In an ever surprising way, for every single occurrence is A real preparation for the better to come   Indeed, what I say is, each event that takes place in your life Leads you nowhere else but one step closer to heaven   Sublime    Rather than the Douglas Fir’s             Top towering against the morning sky It is the way it reaches up               Penetrates the darkness of last night                 Supporting a whole corner of             Tomorrow’s world like a tremendous totem   The same is true of man. The sublime is In his rise, his civilized mind is Uplifted to a different space   Nothing pushing up under Your feet, your heart, and your spirit      How it stands high   Way to Examine Life   As waters from the Fraser River Join the Pacific with pure streamlets From glaciers, there is no clear cut Line between inland and oceanic waters   Walking along the bank, you see A barge full of sawdust pulling in From or to nowhere at dusk; along The mouth a small tugboat drags   Half a mile of timbers where seabirds Are trying to hear the gurgling Between fallen trees, like a tiny Ant carrying a huge dunghill. You feel   Tired of running, but you find waves surging Towards the bank as if to send your thoughts ashore       Bio: Yuan Changming co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan. Writing 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. A poetry judge for Canada's 44th National Magazine Awards, Yuan began writing and publishing fiction in 2022. His debut novel Detaching, 'silver romance' The Tuner and short story collection Flashbacks are all available at Amazon, his duology Edening due out in 2026.