5 Poems & Photos by Allen Yuan

Traffic Light

Green, Yellow, Red
Step
Stop

Yet again I missed the light
What could have been
What should have been

My chance to burst to
The frontier of the background
Defining the jagged shimmer
Of the tender life force

But I wait, pondering
Is this a pre-carved destiny?
An aim, beyond ambition

Green, Yellow, Red

Step
-

The Zhuangzi Conundrum

Is it Zhuangzi dreaming of himself
Becoming a butterfly, or the butterfly
Dreaming of itself becoming Zhuanzi?

Or, rather, is the dream per se the same
Reality in a different universe or just
A different reality in the same dream?


Life & Meaning

Via all my synapses, the words
Assemble
Into a pattern of consciousness


Trilogy of Art: a Parallel Poem

1/ Life and Content
Aha, it’s breathing
As consciousness
Flows in like a fish

2/ Love and Sound
Hark, they’ve wept
While the hush
Drips through silences

3/ Death and Form
See, it’s getting stilled
Until the shape
Hardens into meaning


Twilight Life: Another Parallel Poem

Luck brushed my shoulder. Doubt held my hand.
I built my castles on weathered sand.
Time passed through me like wind through a screen,
Moments half-shadowed, and moments half-seen.
Joy was a rumor I borrowed and spent.
How could I tell—
By the wish in the well—
Whether mercy or mischief was what fate meant?

Bionote

Allen Yuan, author of Traffic Light, is a 2-time Pushcart and 2-time BoTN nominee. A co-editor of Poetry Pacific, Allen currently works as a financial analyst in Torontor. Since grade 10, Allen has had poetry appear in more than 70 literary publications across 16 countries, which include Cordite Poetry Review, Literary Review of Canada, Poetry Scotland, Shampoo and Spillway.