Category: China | Mediterranean Poetry

Yuan Changming grew up in an isolated village, started to learn the English alphabet at age nineteen and published monographs on translation before leaving China. With a Canadian PhD in English, Yuan currently edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include eleven Pushcart nominations, nine chapbooks & awards, as well as publications in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), & BestNewPoemsOnline, among 1789 others across 46 countries.

Meditating about the Mediterranean

Long long before long ago, Earth
Was originally set within a koru
Close to the Mediterranean
Unfurling at every antlike moment
Directly towards the sun, until
Now it is too overloaded
With evil spirits & viruses

To continue revolution as it
Tries to return to itself

Mediterranean Musings: Were I Ever Absent
                              All human d stances
                                                            Would be d_ stances
Were I absent
                              Noth ng
                                                            Could hold together even as a word
Were I absent
                              Ex stence
                                                            Would break right after an ex
Were I absent
                              L fe
                                                            Might turn out no more than a typo
Were I absent
                              T me
                                                            Would stop moving towards me
Were I absent
                              H story
                                                            Would become a h(ushed ?) story

Horse in the Rain

Standing still on a huge Corsica rock
The pale horse holds its head high
As if it had been running at full speed
On a wild range, looking up afar
To the most distant mountain

Its eyes glittering as raindrops
Keep falling from heaven
Straightly down to hell, &
Water-carving its paleness
Into a demonic statue of history

Yeye Has No Hair

(for Kate Emily Yuan)

Yeah, Yeye has no hair, but he does carry
A whole Mediterranean Sea upon his head
Where many a Trojan horse transported, &
Countless fishermen have drowned to death

Contained by solid coastlines, it is filled with
Thought-islands, where Baba would often
Get chocked with salty water while learning
To swim from one to another; where people

Are divided into colored continents; where
Dead whales have fallen into new colonies of
Lives, while their calls keep echoing far
Beyond the new world; where young children

Like you can travel anytime to the pyramid
To find the hidden treasure buried deep there

First Meeting after 42 Years Separation

(for Qi Hong)

Overwhelmingly
You came upon me
Like the tide returning
From far beyond the horizon

As if lying down in Myrtos Beach
I tried to kiss your foamy tongue, when
My heart was soaked deep
My soul all as wet with water
As my naked body caught alone
Among waves at twilight

Then you began to withdrew
(Again?), just once & for all
Exactly like before