Yuan Changming
My Crows
1/
A wounded, fledgling crow
Caws invisibly
Above its shadowy voice
As if to convey the message
About the darkness of tomorrow night
To the whole world, where a heavy fog
Has just started to fall, falling
2/
No, it was
It is
Not a crow
That has just flown by
In stillness
But a spectre
(in a crow’s shape?)
A whim
(about a crane?)
Or a glyph
(standing for a cuckoo?)
That can actually
Flap away
Neither from your agitated heart
Nor from my meditating mind
Like the butterfly
In a Zhuangzian dream
On My Birthday and Off
I don’t remember how many years old
I am, but I do care about my birthday, a time
When I can imagine getting good wishes
Or words. Rather than having a party
With a big cheese cake or a bowl of longevity
Noodles, I would prefer to leave home
For a lonely walk in the country, wandering
In a poetic wonderland, where I stop to reflect:
For more than a decade I have done what I could
By way of a poem, but since it is unlikely I can
Do anything with it, I find it the proper
Occasion to write one last stanza just
To commemorate my yearly visits to
………………………Qucheng, Homerburgh, Dantefield
………………………Shakespeareston, Goethestadt
………………………Pushkingrad, Baudelaireville
………………………Nerudastad, Frostdale, & Tagorerboro
Sonneting in Infinitives
To be ……………..(a matter when there’s no question)
Or not to be …..(a question when nothing really matters)
……………To sing ……with a frog squatting straight
On a lotus leaf in the Honghu Lake …..near Jingzhou
….To recollect ……………….all the pasts, and mix them
Together like a glass of ………….cocktail
………….To build …………………..a nest of meaning
Between two broken branches on ……..Ygdrasil
To strive ……….for deity
…..Longevity & ……………..even happiness
To come ………..on and off line every other while
To compress …..consciousness into a file, and upload it
Onto a nomochip. To meditate………….. among loud vowels
……………………..To be.. daying, to …………………….die
____
Yuan Changming published monographs on translation before leaving China. Currently, Yuan edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include 10 Pushcart nominations, Best of the Best Canadian Poetry and Best New Poems Online, among others.