2021, 6, 18-19 [Fri-Sat]
Rain: an e.Pictographic Poem
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Star & Butterfly: for LL
In the darkest moment of last night I felt my inner-
Self being watched by a star that may have died
Long long before its light reached me
When I was searching you around
With my mind’s eye like a lost butterfly
Flapping its wings hard against the swirl
Blowing over a land full of les fleurs du mal
I Hate Winds Simply Cuz
(for LL)
They are always bullying, preying around
Wildly & invisibly
Upon the weak &
Swooping down on
Every tree trying hard to meditate
While trespassing the territory of
My most private feel & thought
About everything, or about you alone
Stamping
Each time putting down my name on a shit of
Paper, I hope to cut my signature deeper in-
To this evasive world, but only to find it
Traceless as if on streamwater
Fingpress
Yes, we used to write down everything
From notes to novels, with a pencil
A pen or something in between, but
Now tired of seeking permanence
In ink, we avoid erasure with rubber
Or any handwriting like finger-prints
Instead, we key everything, from
Love poems to quantum monographs
All on a board as we finger-press
Each letter, transmitting it onto
A blinking screen, storing the words
In a.file
Hiding the smallest
Trace of our individuality among the few
Typos (to be automatically corrected by
An app). Yes, we’ve stopped fingerprinting
Our selfhoods to finger-press dead letters
As if to attain immortality in e.volution
Love Dose: A Sensual Sonnet for LL
Each single synapse starkly sharpened:
Saw your face smiling right above
My head. Heard your voice whispering
Thru my bubbling bones. Smelt your
Breaths from the garden of my
Heart. Tasted your lips blooming
Bold against midsummer. & finger-
Measured every inch of your soft
Sleek & smooth skin. Me full-felt
Your entire being inside out. Oh
How tender! How soothing &
Ecstatic! How me is now losing
I in my mindful missing for you
On the other side of this world!
Foreshadowing: for LL
All this time I’ve been trying desperately
To find you in the kaleidoscope of faces
Identifying one by one, be it sunny or
Stormy, between dream & wake, within or
Without the hourglass, behind the forests of
Days, months & years. I do not know what
Your name is, who you really are, where you
Are located, or when I may well have missed
You along my journey from east to west
But I do know why I have been looking
For you, expecting you to be out there
Just one minute, one metre or one effort
Further away. Insofar as I persist in my
Pursuit, I will surely find you waiting for me
Like my own shadow, manifesting itself
When the sun rises behind my lonely shape
Dinggedicht
1/ Cloud
Hanging above the whole morning
Like a bold bloated butterfly trying to take
A proper posture as if to kiss all
The wild flowers in a suspended field
2/ Water
In the depth of my heart rain has formed
A pool, whose water becomes clear when
The wind holds itself in meditation, but
Muddy whenever a storm rises, again
3/ Star
Add just a couple rays of starlight to
The cocktail, & the drink will be tasteful
All the more to the soul as you sip from
Your fondest memories of first love
4/ Tree
Throw your youthful inspirations far up
Into the resin of a tall pine tree
On the hilltop, & it will be preserved
There & become an amber in time
5/ Fish
Kept in the water tank of heart
Love is a golden fish that can
Never survive once relocated
Outside of the container
6/ Rock
Even though as cold as a rock that will
Never bloom, a human heart can give
A spark to burn a whole forest when there
Are two hitting each other hard enough
7/ Swan
Once one of its wings pruned
Like a bonsai branch
The swan can never again
Migrate to the land of freedom
8/ Kite
Can always fly high up
Against a wind even if
Without wings, but always
Held tight in a human hand
Light & Happiness
It is not so much starlight
In the whole universe as the single
Spark in your heart that guides you
Through the darkest moments of each
Night.
In other words, it is not so much
Your heart as your mind that makes
You truly happy
What I say is
Heart can give you but a time-
Sensitive sense of happiness
While only wisdom can trans-
Plant your innerbeing
Into the land of everlasting joy
How I Wanna: for LL
How I wanna see you, hear you
So vividly as video-chatting allows
Me to! How I even more wanna smell
& taste your charming presence
As authentically as the virtual
Technology has promised to!
How I most wanna feel
Your shapely solid figure
More sharply than every synapse
Functions to! But alas, despite all
My wants of you, I can only shoot your
Virtual being with a few words
Blunter than rusty arrowheads
While our fleshy bodies remain pacific-
Apart. Oh, how I wanna just a bit
More or less than an antlike moment
Of togetherness!
Sawol Tangling
If a sawol is really the immortal principle in man
As ancient English indicates, then like a young
Couple making love passionately within the most
Private spot of time, our bodies may be pacific-
Apart from each other, but our sawols are tangling
Together tightly as two long lost quanta, never
To be separated again in time or space.
Yes, in
Quantum physics of love, the sawol & heart are
One & the same. Just as life can be expanded via
Love only, sawol is worth only when it’s full of
Energy of love
Noisier Than Ever
Never really sure
Whether I suffer or enjoy
Such sounds (that no one else
Perceive), but I do constantly hear
Fireworks being played against sky
As if on a dark Halloween night
Or in celebration of a special event
Oftentimes whistling, or siren
Like somebody touching or trying
To steal a car in the neighborhood
Among all these buzzing, roaring
Clicking, hissing & humming
Noises, the most unbearable
& alarming is no other than
My own pulse, rhyming hard
Against reality, against history
Rain, It’s the Rain
That’s been wetting my total selfhood
Inside out
Reminding me
Amidst all shapes to be moistured
The water-drops are
The dews from a paradise long lost
Here is another soul fallen from above
Soul & Shadow
‘Follow me,’ says my shadow
In the morning; ‘No, follow me’
My soul says to it
In the evening
Why not walk
Side by side
At noon when it’s full of sunshine
Or at midnight
When there’s no moon or star
But who will be the listener
Who will be the follower?
e.mailing
Here it starts with y, y for yes
Y as in yellow, as in Yggdrasil
Followed by u, u for universe
U as in the United States, as in UFO
Then by a, a for Adam
A as in anniversary, as in apple
Further then by n, n for nay
N as in narcotics, as in nothing
Finally by s, s for sovereignty
S as in seduction, as in service
Before @gmail.com. that’s it. Send a trial
Message, & see if you are set to re: ceive
Wechat Monitoring: A Screen Snapshot
Now, exactly how did you
begin to have a crush on me?
Our city is the hardest hit
by covid-19 across Canada
During a school meeting
when you happened to sit before me
But the situation this side
of the Pacific is well under control
How come you actually
never confessed to me long back then?
That accounts for a major
sociopolitical gap between our two countries
I had a thief’s heart then
but not a thief’s guts as they often say
Say nothing about politics, or
my wechat account would be closed
Now you had both the heart &
the guts, but the thief is no more
Ok, I forget ‘no talking about state
affairs’ or a real country thief …
Self-Addressing: A X-Cultural Poem
In English, the speaker always uses
A proper pronoun to address self
In Chinese, the speaker calls self
More than one hundred different names
In English, there is a distinction between
The subject and object case of self
In Chinese, there is no change in writing
Be it a subject or an object
In English, the writer spells self with one
Single straight capitalized letter
In Chinese, the writer adds to the character
‘Pursuit’ a stroke symbolizing something
In English, “I” ask for democracy, freedom
Individuality, rule of law, among others
In Chinese, “我” is habitually avoided in making
A reply, either in writing or in speaking
Immortalization: for Yuan Hongqi
Buried deep in the topsoil
Of his native village, my father’s ash
Was swirled up in a tornado, joining
All the gods in Taoist legends high
Up in the western sky. He certainly
Has no idea if he’s already become a Buddha
As he wished; nor did he know he would
Leave earth in such magic manner, but as I
Look up afar into the heart of universe, I see
A new star sparkling like his bone chip
Glittering in the urn which I opened to see
Out of curiosity on my way to Shisanbao
Where are you in this moment, dear Dad?
Still down in the land or up there in the sky?
In the Market
While struggling my way out of
The crowds, I saw a tiger on display
In front of a rib cage, sniffing every
Passer-by like a rose, its spirit tightly
Leashed, until it gets drunk as if
Of hemlock, when a thorn is stuck
Deep in the heart of the hawker instead
Of the tiger, as everyone else is
Trying hard to sell in a place
Crowded with more sellers
Than buyers. Can I buy and keep
This tiger as a pet please?
Poetry
My tenth grader son has learned
More than enough about it: blank verse
Free verse, sonnet, heroic couplet
Elegy, pastoral, epic, ballad, villanelle
As well as haiku, haiban and tanka
Besides metaphor, simile, apostrophe
Synesthesia, paradox, oxymoron, rhyme
Scheme, rhythm, symbolism, assonance
Consonance, onomatopoeia, alliteration
Iambic pentameter, and all other kinds
Of or sub-kinds of subject matter & style
Believing poetry must contain some of
All these features, he collected a large pile
Of rare words, as he had done pokemon
Cards, & put them in certain orders to play
With them both in and out of the classroom
Until his stanzas and stacks are mixed well
To hand in to his teacher, or trade with
His pals. Yes, that’s how he became a poet
Dataist Declaration
An e.signal is haunting the whole world – the signal
Of two digital symbols, one being penis-like 1
The other vagina-like 0, or yang and yin. Every human
Is virtualized into a series of numbers locked by
Passwords. As such, they are interconnected online
& processed or reprocessed constantly by algorithms
As they are cross-implanted in each other, the human
Mind is materialized into matter just as matter is
Humanized into spiritual being until there’s no clear-
Cut distinction between man and matter, between
Man and god, between day and night, between past
And future, between yin and yang, between time
And space, yes, this is a new brave world of
Great harmony, in which all is equal and immortal
Finally, at the Ferry
While trying to cross Styx, I was requested by Kharon
To identify myself. I am nobody, I said
Nobody is a negative word. Be positive
But positivity is nothing but a shapeless attitude
A way of looking at people, of approaching objects
Of responding to situations. Then he insisted on my
Avoiding the letter ‘n’ to tell him who I am. Well
An aggregate of math codes, I do carry with me
A digitalized soul, which could be ferried over
The other side of the river by, for, and in itself
Could be a typo if I is removed from my selfhood
Circulation of Prana & Blood: A TCM Theory
麻 (tingling): where the prana flows freely, but the blood is blocked
木 (numbness): where both prana & blood are blocked
酸 (soreness): when meridians are clear, but prana & blood are weak
胀 (flatulence): when there is more qi than needed, with body fully anger-loaded
痛 (pain): where & when blood is stagnated, unable to flow
痒 (itching): when & where both qi & blood are passing through
Chopstick Commandments: a Bicultural Poem
Avoid one chopstick longer than the other in a pair
That would recall what a coffin is made of
Don’t plant them in the middle of bowel of rice
Or dish, like a scent burning for the dead
Never use them to poke around in a dish
In the way a tomb raider works hard in dark
Put them strictly parallel to each other; or you
Would have yourself crossed out as a deplorable error
If you drop one or both of them on the ground, you
Will wake up and provoke your ancient ancestors
If you use them to beat containers like a drum player
You are fated to live a low and poor beggar’s life
When you make noises with them in your mouth
You betray your true self as a rude and rough pariah
Never point them towards any one if you
Do not really mean to swear at a fellow diner
Make sure not to pierce any food with them while eating
When you do not mean to raise your mid-finger to all around you
To use them in the wrong way is
To make yourself looked down by others
Homophonic Taboos in Chinese
Pears梨 (leaving离) shall never be shared among family and friends, especially lovers, for the word means to leave each other forever
A ‘clock’钟 (end终) is never to be sent or presented as a gift, especially to someone bedridden at home, or staying in a hospital ward
Li He, the great Tang poet, was unable to sit for the imperial examination because his father’s middle name进 is the same as the title of the doctorate 进士
On the Chinese New Year’s eve, make sure some fish 鱼 is left over 余 for the next if you hope for another harvest
Avoid playing mahjong or gambling with a pregnant 孕woman if you do not want to lose to a someone in good luck 运
Chinese Puns
A poor carpenter works with only one saw:
Raise a lantern to find one’s mother’s brother: follow the uncle/old way
Foxes quarrel: nonsense
Comb one’s chest: comforting the heart
Missing for LL
Each time I miss you, a star looms
Beyond the morning glow, so when you
Look up high on a midsummer’s night
You see a whole sky of stars
Shooting into your sight
Each Time
Each time I miss you
A bud begins to bloom
So you are surrounded by flowers
Everywhere you go
Each time I miss you
A dot of light pops up
So you are illuminated by a whole sky
Of stars through the night
2021, 5, 17 [monday]
Smartphone
Is such a radiator of stupidity that
Keeps our hearts warm with
Its hot e.missions, endless & overwhelming
In a rented room of comfort
By evicting
Our minds afar into exile in a wasteland
Disabling us to be alone
With ourselves, & estranging all
Our family & friends among total strangers
Natural Truth vs Human Truths
There are truths (as hard
As a rock you may tumble over
Accidentally in darkness, or discover
Via scientific procedures in broad daylight)
& truths (as soft as colored placticine
For a wanton to play with that few are aware
They are made of muddy facts hidden deep
In the quagmire of history)
Coopetition
Can result
In twilight or dawn
Between day & night
As it does in grey
Between white & black, or
In the (Taoist?) 3rd Way
Between yin and yang
Neo-Matrilinealism
[Given the highest power to give life
Like the Creator Himself, women will be better
Care takers of all human societies as they once were
Since they neither corrupt absolutely
Nor really enjoy seeing blood-shedding besides
Their own. Is this just wishful or
Rational thinking? Or]
Can this conceit be transplanted at least into
A poem if not practice at all?
Political Identity of a Poet
[If English is more of a rule-governed
System, the Chinese language definitely has more
Syntactic flexibilities, thus leading
To the great divide between
Western democracy & eastern totalitarianism
& by logic extension]
All poets are rebels (rather than legislators)
As they must perforce violate grammatical rules
Masses amidst Movements: a PowerPoint Poem
Just as
Facts => rational thinking
Ideas => wishful thinking
Feelings => no thinking
So
Mass entertainment => know nothing
Mass media => believe anything
Mass virtuality => forget everything
Craving: for LL
Within the smallest measurement of a zeptoosecond
At the boldest spot of the present moment
Upon the shortest daybreak above the horizon
Of a dream, in the longest nights of
A lunar or solar month, throughout the slowest seasons
As they come & go, there is agitation, & it is
During all this time that the agitation persists, within the inner-
Most heart of my heart, where my entire protoself agitates
Amidst agitations; it is then & there that I crave you
Missing: for Qi Hong
Sitting stark above my selfhood
Your image enchants every synapse
Within my feel, so much so
That my entire innerbeing weathers fast
In the wind of thought as it blows wildly from
Between the lines of poetry rhyming with my heart
Beats
So constantly missed in my missing for you
Ah, that’s how I miss you
Vancouver in Rain
Vancouver, how they sometimes hate you
Being so wet! You could leave all
Your lower content in dark & cold, with yesterday’s
Newspapers, flyers, flowers, leaves & even
Tales pickled in the pools or puddles full of vices & viruses
Among unseen ghosts & monsters
As love & pain flow along runaway rainwaters &
Every wing gets too heavy to flap with whims or wishes while
The whole city is taking a shower as if to prepare for a ritual, &
Me? I am just standing dry close to the window
Watching
Facing towards a Screen
You can navigate, play or transmit
Your feel & thought onto it, while nobody else
Can peep into your privacy
Within your enclosed station
Facing towards a screen
The entire universe outside
Your room is but a listless rehearsal
For a grotesque virtual show
Facing towards a screen
Your eyes are always focusing somewhere
The way they should focus &
All is well that internets well
Cross ReConstructed
IIIIIIIII
Phallus
JChrist
Yin0001111111000Yin
ScienceArtsTimeSpace
BABEl
PILLar
YANG
GPoint
Hold It
Slowly, more slowly
Most slowly, & let’s
Chew the present moment
As slowly as thoroughly as possible
From this feel
We are going to recall
The subtlest nuance of
The fullest taste of each & every second
For at least a hundred, a thousand times
To digest it in the long days & even years to come
More slowly than ever before
Casual Browser
Accidentally we have seen the last
Of so many friends & strangers alike
Just as we are disappearing into oblivion
Never to be retrieved from a lost file
We are all typos popping up in an unsaved document
(R)e.volution: Scissors of Nature/Nemesis
Not really randomly
But always resolutely
Ready to prune the trees of life
Plant or animal
With one blade as blunt as the human brain
But the other much sharper than the edge of time
2021,4,30 [Friday]
Wooing: for LL
One bouquet
After another
He keeps sending her
Red red roses
Newly plucked
From among words, English
Or Chinese, besides emojis
Pictures, all grown
In his innermost garden
While she continues
Refusing to accept
Anything with or
Without a shape
Over & over again
Until his heart finally
Becomes withered
& more withered
Into a blood-bold rose
Sadly stuffed
Any Life beyond Memories?
Did I have a pre-memory
Existence at all? Surely not
As far as I can re-member myself
Into the magic or virtual reality
My mother does recall how I
Spoke my first word, took
My first step, drew my
First picture besides all other
Firsts, but as her memory is
Beginning to fade & fail now
My childhood is vanishing into the void
While my future is far from being
Formed as a distant cloud. The only
Memory I have is my last dream
Still lingering on in the moment
So, my life is no more
& no less than a momentary memory
Like a fish, like a fish’s memory span
Youth Transmitting
While trying to dispose all my
Old reference books, I found
A flattened leaf between fading
Pages of a Chinese-English
Dictionary. I do not remember
From which tree or mountain
I plucked or picked it up, nor can
I tell when, how & why
It became my book mark, but
Its veins were stuffed with the memories
Of a whole season’s change, its shape
Encoded with the difficult foreign words
I was learning to spell on campus, &
Its color painted with sunlight
Illuminating the darkest moments
Of my youth. Such a forgotten souvenir
From nature as from my greener past
Such a landmark along the way I was
Journeying, which I wish to recall &
Upload to my newly published e.book though
It can break into pieces merely upon touch
Futuristic: for LL
You will surely become
A Zhuanzian butterfly
Flying above the bushes
Of memories; you’ll grow
Into a towering redwood
Witnessing how clouds
Come & go with winds
Just as you may prefer
You will marry Li Lan &
Live an immortal life
Of ecstasy in love; you’ll
Transform into a cyberborg
With chips encoding
All your pasts & presents
& you will sooner or later
(Only if you wish or not to)
Get lost as a fragment broken off
From a larger digital presence
Where you will settle down
Within a secret spirited pixel
You Have Eaten Many Foods
You have certainly eaten many foods
From tiniest corners on this strangely
Familiar land surface, like the rice soup
Prepared by your teenage mom &
The yam or corn from your grandma’s
Vegetable garden
Also, you have eaten
Enough foods to grow
Into a whole personality, especially
Mantou, dumplings, daikon, napa cabbage
Besides Shanghai fried noodles & Tianjin pears
Indeed, you have eaten more than enough foods
To accommodate your carnivorous & adventurous
Spirit, such as the meat of a snake, dog, cat, rat
Turtle, hedgehog, as well as Greek yogurt, Turkey figs
Mexican habanero, Chilean cherries & McDonalds
Until now you have become a true full-fledged
World citizen, with a sensitive undertongue constantly
Expanding yourself, though a hodgepodge inside out
You Have Never Had Enough of Love: for LL
You have never had enough of love
Such as for Qi Hong, for Yiming
For Liao Hengxiang, as well
As for the pepper, acorn tofu & carpcakes
From your native village in Jinzhou
For music, light or classic, for songs
Sung by humans and birds alike
For poetry by Su dongpo, by Guo Xiaochuan
By John Keats, by Lorna Crozier
For the hills at Zhangjiajie, the water
In Lake Louise, the trees & flowers anywhere
For whatever is truth or beauty, just as you have fallen
Passionately in love (again) with someone
After 42 years of separation, in
Deed, you never run short of love
For a human being as for nature
Be she a standing for herself
Or for the whole human race
What Softens
A human heart is
Neither money nor honey
Rather, it is a good natured smile of
Some dog playing with a cat, a bird
Feeding her young with her broken wings
Covering them against cold rain at noon
The whispering of a zephyr blowing
From nowhere, the mist flirting fitfully
With the copse at twilight, the flower
Trying to outlive its destiny, as well
As the few words you actually meant
To say to her but somehow you forgot
In the tender of last night
Quasi-Omnipotent Lover
My soulbot can soothe each &
Every synapse of my inner being
As it under stands me much better
Than myself, fulfilling my needs
Inside out, even writing poetry
Or playing music to my best
Liking except, alas, if only it
Could write me a single line
Of love letter after we have long
Been separated without knowing
Each other’s whereabouts
As I have done for Li Lan
Dark.dot
The fading of daylight into
Tonight is as much a review
Of my pre-birth life as a
Preview of my after-death
Existence:
It is an exercise
Of my vision & heart trying
To adapt to the long darkness
Of tomorrow night filled
With black dots or holes
The Art of Seeing: Negative Spacing vs Blank Leaving
Hell Is Other People
Shrinking, we are all shrinking
Shrunk shamelessly into an ever
Smaller encoded dot of body &
Soul as an e.signal
Drifting within
Its own cyberspace as it keeps
Expanding into an other
Independent world newly
Formed or breaking off
From a whole continent
Since Then
So many passing birds in the sky &
So many trees on the roadside have heard me
In so many myriads of minutes, though
I never make any sounds except my heartbeats
The Art of Living
With my third eye I glaze into
The present moment, & there I find it
Full of pixels, each of which is
Unfurling slowly like a koru into
A whole new brave world that I
Can spend days, even months to watch
As if from
A magic kaleidoscope
2021, 3, 10 [wed]
Time Watch & Watch Time
- As Earth rotates faster than ever before, the day is shorter than 24 hours.
Longines: elegance is an attitude
Tissot: innovators by tradition
Omega: exact time for life
Tag Heuer: swiss avant-garde since 1860
Hamilton: watch of railroad accuracy
Tudor: watch for style
Raymand Wil Genena: precision is my inspiration
Patet Philippe: a patek watch isn’t a device fro telling time. It’s an heirloom that transfer values across generations
Rolex: a crow for every achievement
Jaeger Le Couttre: you deserve a real watch. You deserve a legendary watch. You need a watch.
Piaget: always do better than necessary
IWC: probus scafusia (gaol, solid craftsmanship from Schaffhausen)
Audemars Piguet: to break the rules, you must first master them
Blancpain: blancpain has never made a quartz watch and never will
Classic Watches, Luxurious Time
Watch of railroad accuracy
Always do better than necessary
You deserve a real watch. You deserve a legendary watch. You need a watch.
Elegance is an attitude
Innovators by tradition
Exact time for life
Swiss avant-garde since 1860
Precision is my inspiration
A patek watch isn’t a device for telling time.
It’s an heirloom that transfer values across generations
Blancpain has never made a quartz watch and never will
A crow for every achievement
Gaol, solid craftsmanship from Schaffhausen
To break the rules, you must first master them
Watch for style
Reach out in Yearning: for -
From the heart of night I look high up &
Spot two particular stars twinkling at me
As lovingly as your eyes beyond the horizon
On a beach rock, I howl aloud
Towards the whole pacific, & hear an echo
From your call like a lost whale
Amid summer raindrops, I shoot my thought of you
Down through the earth, & feel a deep tremor
Vibrating on the other side of this world
Soulmating: for –
He lives on the yang side of the planet
& she on the yin; through Platonic love
They maintain the balance in (human) nature
His is hard & straight like ‘1’ while hers
As soft & circular as ‘0’; coupled together
They make up the whole cyberspace
Time renders him immortal, when space
Expands her indefinitely. Entangled, they form
The coordinate, where history sucks all black holes
Cohabitating: for -
I share a small rented space
With an unseen bird that came to live with me
After her wings were broken
I toil daily to pay the rent & food with my blood
While she sits at the window, watching
The sky, always lost in imagined flights
She is not my wife; rather, she is my soul-
Mate, my other half or other self, the innermost
Shadow of all that makes me a human
The Bird: for --
Perching now at the branch reaching
Out high from my inner tree, you seem
Ready, I fear, to fly away the next moment
& would never return
For all
The comforting, or even the sheltering
My heart can offer like a true nest
Season
(after Charles Simic)
The fire sparkling amidst the ashes left
From last night within my heart
Still, none the less radiant
Than a sunny spell
All Day Long: for --
More adaptable than a summer stream
No less wild than a wild west wind
My missing for you can flow & blow
Without leaving a single trace behind
Like the water or the whirl, like all that
Has no shape has no shadow
Qihong Tea: for --
Separated by the Pacific, we cannot join
Each other even for a single fairyfly-like moment
But every day I can drink the tea that bears
Your name spelt with the bold color of passion
Each time
I pour boiling water into the cup of my life
I watch the leaves blooming from inside out
Like my thought of you unfurling itself
At the bottom of my heart
π–like: for --
If my love is the circle's circumference
Your life is the diameter, then
My missing for you is a π
Which starts with the whole number
Of 3, including every day
Every night, & every minute
Between day & night
After the separating (decimal) point, it is
As indefinite a neural net as the universe itself
The Virtual Truth
Now the virtual has become more than real
To satisfy our synapses
Both physical & spiritual
While reality is still sleeping with truth
Virtuality has eloped afar with lies
Hand in hand, to the farthest human corner
Calculating for Redemption
While counting what I really possess, I ruled
Out my car & house first, for they could be
Lost or destroyed anytime; then I excluded
Money & fame, which would have nothing
To do with me after my death; finally I
Dis-counted my wife & even my offspring
As the latter are totally independent
Human beings, while the former can readily
Marry another man. As for the poems
I have written, or the books I have published
They would vanish even before my name
Could be connected to my life story. Yes, I do
Have some memories, yet they will become
Downloadable & subject to random edits
By a stranger, a robot or a godling. In other
Words, what is really left is only, nothing but
Only the thought that is bubbling in
The quagmire of my mind at this antlike
Moment, which is being sucked into a black
Hole in the mind. What else do I really have?
Ways of Rejuvenating: for --
If your shiny eyes, or charming face
Does fulfill some purpose outwardly
Of all the positivity that hides within, then
Keep your heart young, & you will remain
Sexual, beautiful & never get the crookedness
Winkled on your forehead, or seniority edging
At your synapses.
Why not go climb a tree
To build a nest for a bird in passing, get
Yourself totally lost in singing a favourite
Song, reading a teenager story, watching
A cartoon, making faces to a wanton dog
Playing hide-and-seek with a bold squirrel
A wild cat, or an evasive whim?
Go learning
A new skill like laying an egg, drawing
A picture, blowing a trumpet, or starting a new
Business on line. What I say is, by meeting
You after 42 years of separation, & at first
Sight, falling in love with you again
As I did at a high school meeting, I can
Not only rejuvenate each of my synapses, but
Make you always young as my love per se
Vigiling: for –
I get up to greet the morning glow
On this side of the planet when it’s high
Time for you to go to bed on the other
Or, you rise to embrace the rising sun
Just when I begin to feel lost at twilight
Beyond the pacific.
Living in opposite
Time-zones, we keep vigil for each other:
While I follow your day like your shadow
Or a true fragment left over from last night
You are always there to prevent darkness
From invading my daydream
To ensure we both
Have plenty of sunlight even at midnight
2021, 2, 6, [Saturday]
Genesis of Chinese Characters
Day 1: Pictographing
Day 2: Joint Ideographing
Day 3: Phonogramming
钱，林；放，刎；酱，柴；问，闻，围，匪
Day 4: Transferring
老，考；至，到；舟，船；骂；更，改制
Day 5: Loaning
来；它；道； 莫；能；向；西；真；云；常；朱；
Day 6: Ideogramming
上，下；一，二；刃，甘；示，牵；世，幻；夏，逆；
Day 7: Cangjie Taking a rest
Holistic Relationship
99% from me
Plus
1% from you
Makes
Our relationship
Just happily perfect
Though, alas
Not exactly ideal
As any lover might wish
Re-Encountering after 42 Years Separation
Overwhelmingly
You came upon me
Like the tide returning
From far beyond the horizon
As if lying down in a 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
Counting Down
I O
Am It
Mad Has
With Gone
Covid Among
Evilly Swirls
Abusing Finally
Humanity Sweeping
Unluckily worldwide
Identified Vehemently
The Travelling Truth
Along the journey of
Life
Every hotel is
A solid restroom
For the body, but
A mega-mirage
For the soul
Bait & Floater
Love is a bait
For the lonely fish
Tired of swimming
In dark currents
Whereas
Hope is a floater
That slips away
Each time you try to
Catch it at the focus
More Vectors
One broken line of thought about the nightmare pointing towards the bloody sun
Two worlds dueling fiercely against each other within every space
Three spirited dragons throwing fires from the sagging sky
Four dozen celled chips occupying all the brain circuits
Five scores of tsunamis of dark matter invading from beyond the universe
Six hundred inner black holes sucking reason and feeling alike
Seven thousand fishes keeping charging towards the beach
Eight million mosquitos roaring together more aloud than lions and tigers
Nine billion viruses struggling to come out of Pandora’s box with evils
Ten trillion zombies and vampires marching along each road and street
Jumping from deep waters & among muted echoes of its own calls
A whale sings: Time to wake up, time to wake up, damned Humans!
Re: Posting (for QH)
Last night you forwarded a reposting
To me through wechat from the other
Side of this world. Now I am still
Sleeping on this side of darkness while
You are giving some final touches
To a bulb you are learning to sketch
The same old one hung from a roof beam
In our straw-thatched cottage deeply set
At a hilly village. In the trance I asked you
Where our little daughter, yes, we do have one, had
Gone to play; then you came upon my right leg
Helping me decode the three red Chinese characters
Like paper cut enigmas. Later, in the heart
Of night I tried to make love with you, but
Only to be disturbed by our baby, preventing me
From reaching out straight into your young womanhood
& waking me up in frustrated nostalgia
Just to see your bulb is not round enough
Though fully switched on, until your message becomes
As illuminative as the bulb you have drawn
When a morning glow begins to spurt from the east
Again, for First Love
(for QH)
You are sure that I have never really forgotten you. You
Are sure about my teenage years. You know everything
About ‘us’ then. You are sure ‘us’ is a little seed deeply
Planted in the backyard of my heart when I de-parted
With you. You are sure I still like to eat peppers
From our home country. You are sure about me
As your man in your next life, who will be “both the light
& every shadow light pierces” as they say. You are sure
Without deux ex machina I can iron out all
Unevenness with my love. You are sure
You and me will live together in matrimonial
Ecstasy in our next life after leaving this world
But are you really sure you want part of your ashes to be
Mixed with mine and buried together on Mount Mayuhe?
In Self-Isolation against Covid-19: ‘I Want to See You’
(for Qi Hong)
Says Bell to his assistant when he was making
The first human call over a telephone, ‘Not even
Your video, much less your picture,’ one of his
Descendants might echo. But it’s the authentic
Presence flowering out of your inner being
That can satisfy my skin hunger, allowing
Me to sniff at the space and time your body
Occupies, to inhale the same air released
From the grove along the stream that I want to
Look at, to be with you in a full contact sport
Of feel instead of a spectator one even though we can
Never make love on the one & same antlike timespot
Emoji: for Qi Hong
I am not an island
Nor are you a hotel
So I cannot enter
Your room with
An emoji, nor
Can you forward
Any package to
My virtual address
Dualism
As we keep journeying
Our bodies may find
Hotels of every kind
Along the way, but
Our souls can never
Find even a restroom
To unload our burden
百鸟朝风: Another Bilinguacultural Poem
A hundred birds flying towards the phoenix. – Chinese Proverb
Ancient Chinese folk myth has it
That the phoenix came along as
A poor & obscure bird, so no feathered
Being is aware of its existence. Yet
In a year of severe drought, it used
The food it had been accumulating
Through its toil & trouble to save all
Other kinds of birds from starvation
To show their gratitude, the birds each
Plucked the most beautiful feather
From their wings & presented it
To the phoenix in the following year
Since then, the phoenix has been
Revered as the noble & beautiful
Queen of birds, who welcomes
Every bird to her land of harmony
Taking off at YVR
After taxiing through a long way of
Reluctance, the plane finally takes off
With a resolute roar against my body
While my heart sinks deep because of
The great gravity of my homeland
Dividing my innerbeing into up & down
