Tuesday 5 August 2014

5 Poems by Changming Yuan

Strawberry

      Bolder than blood
Fleshier than a whole collection
Of summer spots

You wear your heart inside out
        With sun-stained seeds

We wrap your body greedily
    With our tongues and minds


Picking Blueberries

in the sweltering fields of juicy july
        they get so sexually agitated
all their nibbles become bloated
              with purple ripeness, eager
to be caressed, eager
                      to be sucked


Loneliness

All feelings are sharable, somehow
Except loneliness
Loneliness that drives you into the very depth
Knowingly
Like a caterpillar retreating, hiding itself
In its own cocoon
Where it keeps gnawing at the wall
      Until it flies out, like a butterfly


Subtracting: The Art of Self-Discovery

Take off all your garments
Peel off all your masks
Remove every tattoo on your skin
Squeeze out both thoughts and feelings
Stay naked inside out just for a while
And you will return to the original state
            Of your selfhood, where you can
Touch your inner being, where you can
Observe your own soul, crying there
      Like a newborn baby


On the Ridge

At the waist of Cypress Mountain
I yelled out my heart and soul
And heard an echo, which did not seem
To be my voice, so I climbed higher
To the hilltop, where I saw
Some clouds floating like sheep
Spread afar on the prairies
Where they were all staring at me
As if I were a ghost, just like them
Drifting around in the sky
So silent, so shapeless


Bionote

Changming Yuan, 8-time Pushcart nominee and author of Chansons of a Chinaman (2009) and Landscaping (2013), grew up in a remote village, began to learn English at 19, and published several monographs before leaving China. With a PhD in English, Yuan currently tutors and co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver. Since mid-2005, Yuan’s poetry has appeared in 889 literary publications across 30 countries, which include Asia Literary Review, Best Canadian Poetry (2009;12;14), BestNewPoemsOnline and Threepenny Review.



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