Swift: for Li Lan
With layers and layers and layers
Of red dust, my selfhood
Has long been tired
Tired of flying
Flying alone
Day & night
But where can I perch?
Do I have a nest at all?
O for a solid
Respite before
Continuing my lonely
Flight, snuggling my inner-
Most being in the heart of your
Soul, and settling my weathered body
Right at the A-spot of your tenderness
Khöömei
A deep double-
Throat, singing
From beyond
Heaven (or hell)
Echoing in nature
As it finds itself
Heard in
A human voice
Like a whale’s call
Perceivable
By its like
Even afar across
The whole Pacific
With their most tender touches, snowflakes
Have painted the whole night white
Including the darkest corner in sight
Even within a forgotten dream
Except the plum tree, standing alone there
Under the eastern sky, whose
Flowers are blooming boldly against
The entire season, more vibrant than blood
The Tuner: a 50-Word Trilogy: for Qi Hong
In the mid-teens
You gave me a tuner
In Mayuhe, which I’ve
Treasured as a love-token
For five decades (when
We remained totally
Lost to each other
On Earth’s opposite sides)
Until now after horizontal
Refreshments you clarify
You had just meant to help
Set the tune for my erhu
East vs West: A Synoptic Cultural Comparison
During the great flood
Noah hid himself in the ark
While Dayu tried to contain it
With his bare hands
Prometheus stole fire
From Olympian gods
While Sui Ren got it
By drilling wood hard
Smart Daedalus crafted wings
To fly away from his prison-tower
While Old Fool removed the whole
Mountain blocking his way
Helios enjoyed driving his chariot
All along in the sky
While Kuafu chased the sun
To take it down & tame it
Sisyphus rolls the boulder uphill
Because of his deceitfulness, while
Wu Gang cuts the laurel as a punishment
For distractions in learning
Yuan Changming, probably the world's most widely published contemporary poetry author who speaks Mandarin but writes in English, grew up in a remote Chinese village, started to learn the English alphabet in Shanghai at age nineteen and published several monographs on translation before moving to Canada as an international student. With a PhD in English from the University of Saskatchewan, Yuan currently lives in Vancouver, where he edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan. Since mid-2005, Yuan has had poetry appearing in 2089 journals/anthologies, across 49 countries, which include Best Canadian Poetry (2009, 2012, 2014), the Best of the Best Canadian Poetry: Tenth Anniversary Edition, BestNewPoemsOnline. and Poetry Daily. In 2021 he was nominated, and served on the jury, for Canada’s National Magazine Awards (poetry category). In 2022, Yuan began to write and publish fiction, with his first (hybrid/experimental) novel Mabakoola: Paradise Regained due out in 2025.
Poetry Books by Yuan Changming:
1. Chansons of a Chinaman [Paperback]. Murfrees
2. Landscaping [Paperback]
3. Mindscaping [e.
4. Origin of Letters [e.chapbook]. Chicago: Beard of Bees Press, 2015.
5. Kinship [Paperback] Sea
6. Wordscaping [e. Chapbook]. Halifax: Fowlpox Press, 2016.
7. Dark Phantasms [Paperback]. San Jacinto, CA: Flutter Press, 2017.
8. East Idioms [e.chapbook]. Cyberwit.net, 2019.
9. (R)e.volution [
10. 《袁昌明詩選》(Selected Poems [e.book]. Vancouver: PP, 2021.
11. Limerence [Paperback]. Vancouver, Poetry Pacific Press, 2021.
12. All My Crows [Paperback]. Grass Valley, CA: Cold River Press, 2022.
13. E.dening [Paperback]. Seattle: Goldfish Press, 2022.
14. Homelanding [Paperback].
15. Sinosaur [Paperback]. Hickory, NC: Redhawk Publications, 2022.
16. Yellow Comedy [e.Chapbook]. LA: Four Feathers Press, May 2023.
17. Free Sonnets [Paperback]. Philadelphia: Dark Onus Press, 2023.
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