The Inner Journey
Legs crossed
Sitting straight
Still in chan meditation
Upon a lotus flower
Newly blossoming on my inner pond
I perceive myself transforming
Slowly but steadily
From a monstrous yellow-skinned frog
Into an ever bigger, brighter Buddha
Until my whole being inside out
Bursts into trillions of individual cells
Each being an other self of mine
Like a star beyond the skyline
Blinking, whispering
As if all chanting in unison
In a universal prayer
For harmony
Snorting over the Clouds
Flying between sea and sky
Between day and night
Amid heavenly or oceanic blue
I lost all my references
To any timed space
Or a localized time
Except the non-stop snorting
Of a stranger neighbour
Then, beyond the snorts rising here
And more glooming there
I see tigers, lions, leopards
Together with many hanger-throated gods
Darting out of every passenger’s heart
Running amuck around us
As if released from a huge cage
As if in a dreamland
Time vs Space
Divided into narrow cars
Time is where
All men and women
Get on or off
As the train keeps
Running forward
Along the rails of
An endless space
Except one butterfly that can fly
Freely from one car to another
Overtaking
An anchored lamborghini first
Then a line of taxis
And finally several big buses
In this one way road
Have I been driving all the way
Only to find a dead end
Here and now?
Along Our Journey to the West
Let us take all the long time we need
To wake up from our overdue dreams
Get out of the bed, and stretch our
Limbs as far as possible for a new morning
Let us take all the long time we need
To listen to the first song of the birds
Watch the rise of this summer sun, feel
The breeze combing each tree with tenderness
Let us take all the long time we need
To enjoy being together with our beloved
Exchange a smile so that they can stay with
Us just a few seconds or even minutes longer
Yes, let’s take all the long time we need
To drink this tea, to chat about this weather
To look back at the road we have travelled along
To think, to cry, and to die in lingering twilight
Stopping Awhile During My Journey of Life
How I hate jogging every morning
As mechanically as a robot, eating
Vegetables only like a damned pig
Taking more pills than a patient, avoiding
Fat, salt and sugar as if they were real poisons
Brushing my teeth twice a day, and doing
All kinds of stupidities right against my will
Just to live a few days longer or, to be more
Exactly, to turn a bit more food into waste
Like a stinking shit-making machine! Indeed
How I am tired of living such a life that is never
Enjoyable! Is this daily examined life
Of mine really worth living at all?
Yuan Changming, 9-time Pushcart nominee and author of 7 chapbooks (including Wordscaping [2016]), published monographs on translation before moving out of China. With a PhD in English, Yuan currently edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver, and has poetry appearing in Best Canadian Poetry, BestNewPoemsOnline, Threepenny Review and 1209 others across 38 countries.
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