Saturday 5 November 2016

5 Poems by Changming Yuan

Arboreal Thinking 

No two trees share
The same shape; each
Keeps trying hard to
Restore its unique
Figure. That’s growing
Out of a trunk, similar
Almost exactly
As thick as all the
Branches combined

This is the secrete of nature
About the beautiful
About the sublime


Natural Ironies (1) 

1/ Snagging

You have long since died
But you will never fall

Standing deadly among leafy growths
Your body embodies a rebirth
Greening close to your rotten cycles

2/ Moonbow

Few humans look up
At you, but you reflect
And refract just as many colors
As much beauty as a sunbow

With little warmth of the day
But countless secrets about darkness

3/ Whale

You hope to make a loud last call that
Reaches

Far beyond yourself, on yourself, yourself reachable; an
Agitated

Vociferous spirit in the Pacific, cruising
Under night currents, yelling

As if for an echo, but too loud to be heard
By the un-whale like


The Englishness: A  Map of Languacultural Genetics

IIIIIIIIIIIIII
   IIIIIIII
   IIIIIIII
   IIIIIIII
   IIIIIIII
   IIIIIIII
   IIIIIIII
IIIIIIIIIIIIII


Eddying 

Among the mixtures of
Seven primary colors, the painting
Gives rise to a swirl
Turning fast enough
To send you up to a little cloud
Like the Zhuangzian Peng gliding through
The serenity of autumn sky

Neither the bird nor you cast
Any shadow down as the earth
Keeps rotating as leisurely
As any other day beyond the black hole

When you return and stand on a
Hilltop, the painting is still
Unfolding itself, but the bird has
Vanished high up into another universe


Prenatal Gifts for Hyunjung and Kate*

Bamboo nature premium baby diapers [from an aunt
The daughter is the art of freedom 

Love to dream swaddle UP lite [from an uncle
Every princess is a girl, but not every queen 

My Best frind pillow from [Uncle Sam
To be or not to be a single flower 

Grey dahlia nursing cover [from Grandparents
If you want a woman, have something done

Dr. Brown’s bottle warmer [from Aunt Angel
Women, thy name is frailty 

Tammee tippee electric steam sterilizer [from Uncle Chase
Only women are easy to get along with, Confucius hoped 

Stork craft custom hoop glider and ottoman [from Grandpa Michael
One of the two running rabbits must be female, according to Mulan

Infant optics dxr-8 video baby monitor [from Grandma Helen
Flowers, why not bloom all together right now? asked Empress Wu 

Ju-ju-be b.f.f.convertible diaper bag [from uncle Allen, etc., etc.
A baby shower not for a basic bitch, but for blahblahblah, blahblah 

* Our first grandchild Kate is expected to come to this world on november 11, 2016.


Bionote 

Changming Yuan, 9-time Pushcart nominee and author of 7 chapbooks, grew up in a remote village, started to learn the English alphabet in Shanghai at age 19, and published monographs on translation before moving out of China. Currently, Changming edits Poetry Pacific in Vancouver, and has poetry appearing in Best Canadian Poetry (2009,12,14), BestNewPoemsOnline, Cincinnati Review, Poetry in Voice, Threepenny Review and 1239 others. Recently Yuan has a poem nominated for the first time for the Best of the Net (2016) .

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