Changming to Appear on Radio Show

here are 2 updates::

1. on 1 dec, i got a quite exciting email: kindly invited by the hostess Ms Ariadne Sawyer, the president of World Poetry (www.worldpoetry.ca) and also a director of Vancouver Asian Heritage Month, i will for the first time in my life appear on Vancouver Co-op Radio (CFRO 100.5 FM), on Tuesday, January 21, 2014, between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm. i look forward to the experience, but i am very nervous about this interview on World Poetry Cafe Radio Station, which broadcasts to listeners in 48 countries.

2. on dec 14, i launched my own independent chinese blogsite at yuancm.blogspot.ca, where i am going to post all my writings in chinese, including poetry, essays, non-fiction, and etc. my blogging experiences with 2 major chinese websites have turned out quite negative, as my postings there either have few pageviews (at http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/2682748050 ) or are believedly 'censored' somehow for some reasons (at http://blog.creaders.net/changmingyuan/).

busy as he is with his academic studies at ubc, Allen has almost completely stopped writing or reading poetry; and his involvement in our editing and publishing endeavours has been minimized as well.

which symbol/sign/logo to chose for Poetry Pacific?  Ⓟ, Π π, .--., Ᵽᵽ,  ℘℘

now, at 5:00 pm, i decide to use the figure below as pp's logo, which i designed myself today ('. ___ ___." is the morse code for 'p' as in 'poetry' while the large '℘'  is the mathematical Weierstrass p as in 'pacific'::

poetry pacific

Changming: 7th Time Pushcart Nomination

with my own computer sitting in a repair shop for the past few days, i happened to know today that the editors of Sleet Magazine sent me an email the day before yesterday (on november 18), informing me that they had nominated my poem 'y' for the pushcart prize for 2013.

thus far, this has been my 7th time to have such honor, but i know i will never be able to get the prize or any other decent one, although i believe i deserve something even bigger or better.

i have written 10 poems, all titled 'y.' this one is numbered as 'y2.' i am sure another 1/2/3/4 of my 'y' poems will be nominated for the pp.

anyway, here is the link::  http://www.sleetmagazine.com/selected/yuan_v5n1.html#Title1

once my poetry has been accepted or published in more than 1,000 literary magazines or anthologies, i will try to write my novels, hopefully within 2 or 3 years.

Ordeal Ended, Poetry Again

finally, our daily ordeal with the unwanted tenant officially came to an end at 7:00 pm on 14 aug, with him returning the keys to me. for the past 4 months, i have been trying to uphold my Buddhist policy 'friendly come, friendly go' by showing good faith even when he and his accomplice tortured me and other tenants unbearably almost on a daily basis.

it happens that my poem 'snakeland' was accepted by foam:e just a few minutes ago. this piece, like 'genuine genesis', also recently accepted, belongs to a group of poems i have written in response to my suffering imposed by evil tenants.

november seems to be fruitful month; for the past 14 day, i have received 16 poetry acceptances. beginning from tomorrow, i can return to my normal creative life, in addition to much renovation work to do on my house, as well as in my poetry.

PP Publishing Group Ready to Go

last Remembrance day, we launched Poetry Pacific as an e.journal impulsively; our initial aim was to give Allen a chance to exercise his editing skills and get some field experience as an online poetry editor; in other words, we set up our own poetry magazine simply to boost his resume and application to universities. however, the experience has turned out far more meaningful and more productive than we originally anticipated. as time goes by, we have become increasingly more interested in and committed to this literary project. now we plan to venture into more publishing endeavours. in fact, to commemorate PP's anniversary, we will launch the (temporary) web/blogsite of Poetry Pacific Press in a few hours. we have already published three poetry collections, and will publish more books as we are more technically prepared.

poetry pacific press is a subsidiary of PP Publishing Group, which will be ready to publish all kinds of reading materials, in english or chinese, including poetry, fiction, anything or everything that has some word worth.
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november seems to be a luckier month for me, for i have got 10 poetry acceptances for the past 10 days. once the unwanted tenant eventually goes, i will have more time and energy, esp better mood to return to my poetry road. as an american lawyers suggested, my nightmarish experience with tenants is similar to what takes place in the 1990 hollywood movie called 'pacific heights,' which we watched on youtube, but we do not have that kind of luck or dramatic happy ending; our suffering is more and longer.
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Changming: 6-time Pushcart Nomination, etc

last night, i received an email fromm the editor of Yellow Medicine Review, informing me that my short poem 'read' has been nominated by the magazine for the pushcart prize (2013). this is the 6th time i have had such honor since 2009. although i never expect to win this or any other prize - nor do i participate in any literary contest (with the only exception of cbc poetry contest occasionally), i feel a bit comforted that my poetry gains some recognition constantly after all.

sometimes i cannot help wondering how come those who have written/published relatively few poems, and whose poems are not really 'fine' at all, have often won prizes, and even 'big' and handsome ones. also, how come almost 99 percent of the poems published in big-named magazines or anthologies are either nonsense or poorly written lines? as i see it, there is little poetry in those 'poems,' while i believe there has been too much politics in contemporary poetics!

by the way, as the publisher/editor of Poetry Pacific Press, we have just decided to publish our third book titled The Flawless with Flaw, by a good Hunan poet named Yang Lin. although the english version has lost quite a lot of the original poetic elements, its rich imagery and spiritual insight are still readily perceivable to the reader, well beyond the language barrier. today, i am going to send the blurbs and limitedly edited copy back to my chinese partner for printing. the 60-page short collection will become available by the end of december.

shortly, i will place an open call in both english and chiense for manuscript submissions to my Press...

PP's First Poetry Anthology Published

dear PP friends,

the very first bi-lingual (english and chinese) anthology of contemporary chinese poetry 300 NEW CHINESE POEMS we published here at Poetry Pacific Press in september has just become available. in the following please find an introduction in english, and beginning from today, we will post some selections every week on our facebook for your reading pleasure. if anyone by chance is interested in getting a copy, please free free to contact us at editors.pp@gmail.com or yuans@shaw.ca.

now the introduction itself...

The Chinese New Poetry: The Brilliance of 100 Yeas
                                    — Preface to 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012)
                                    By Diablo

Since the year of 1917, the new Chinese poetry has a history of 100 years, during which the Chinese nation has witnessed a series of drastic and important events such as the May Fourth Movement, Confused Fighting between the Warlords, Anti-Japanese War, KMT-CPC Civil War, “Anti-Rightist Movement”, “Movement of Cleaning Politics, Economics, Organization, and Ideology”, the Cultural Revolution, April Fifth Movement, Black 1989, and Reform and Opening up to the Outside World. So much so that it can be said that the 100 years, whether from the angles of history and culture or politics and art, are unexceptionally filled with briers, distress, chaos caused by war, struggles, famine, slaughter, hue and cry, as well as tribulations.
In such a dark and bloody historical context, the new Chinese poetry has undergone stages from its creation to its experiment to its construction: the process shows its utmost fortitude in being undaunted by repeated setbacks. In the past 100 years, there have emerged a host of excellent or great poets who have produced many important and immortal pieces, which have been given attention to the international poetry circle. Unquestionably, it is time to exhibit the whole process and the artistic features of the new Chinese poetry by translating and introducing classic new Chinese poems to overseas countries. Based on this point, through discussions with renowned poetry critics, translators and scholars from 8 universities respectively located in Tianjin, Beijing, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Hunan, Anhui, and Fujian, etc., we have reached a broad consensus at the end of 2010, namely, to compile a Chinese-English textbook of selected new Chinese poetry, which is tantamount both to the brilliant achievement of 100 years of the new Chinese poetry and to the great tradition of Chinese poetry. Our target is: “with a copy of Chinese-English 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012) in your hand, you can get an overview of the history of 100 years of the new Chinese poetry and the representative pieces. Meanwhile, Chinese-English textbook of 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012) provides a new view point and breakthrough point for those who are engaged in the research of new Chinese literature, while providing text reference for the future development and construction of Chinese poetry. What is of particular importance is that the Chinese-English textbook of 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012), by dint of the extensive and effective international communication system established by IPTRC (The International Poetry Translation and Research Centre) through 18 years, the new Chinese poetry is brought into the whole process of world humanistic order, while providing a true, vivid, and profound landscape of language and mind for the 100 years of course of thought of the Chinese nation.”
We all know that since its birth in 1917, the new Chinese poetry is closely connected with the poetic art of foreign countries during its development. In the information age of globalization, the new Chinese poetry is to be more communicative and interactive with the international poetry circles in a more direct and extensive manner, and one of the most effective ways is to compile large-scale Chinese-English bilingual poetry readers. Which bespeaks our original intention to compile this Chinese-English textbook of 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012).
In my opinion, poetry writing is writing of the mind. In other words, we shall regard the Chinese-English textbook of 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012) as the miniature of 100 years of the spirit or the mind of the Chinese nation. Leafing through the Chinese-English textbook of 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012), we can feel the beat and rhythm of each heart: the powerful poetic force, like surging waves in the Yangtze River charging eastward, is exhibited in each poetic line …
Compared with other selections of the new Chinese poetry, this Chinese-English textbook of 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012) is found to have the following features:

 (1) In selecting poems, consideration is first given to their artistry and the construction of linguistic text form. While paying attention to the chosen works’ significance in literary history, the modern sense and artistic value (or aesthetic value) of the poems are highlighted.
 (2) In addition to poets from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, overseas Chinese poets are also included. The book is a thorough examination of the new Chinese poetry since 1917, which exhibits the free and independent human spirit. The book is a selection of the new Chinese poetry with the longest time span and the most extensive areas.
 (3) The included poets are in the order of their dates of birth and, after their poems, included is an introduction to the author.
 (4) In the context of global economy and information integration, the book endeavors, in bilingual form of Chinese and English, to exhibit the development and artistic achievement of the new Chinese poetry in the past 100 years objectively, thoroughly, and comprehensively.
 (5) The English translation of this book composes of two types: poetic translation and academic translation, in which poetic translation is dominant.

It is known that there are more common points than different points between two languages; therefore, interlingual translation is possible. The translatability between languages becomes the theoretical basis for translation. However, this does not exclude the differences between languages. Generally speaking, the translation of poetry, among all literary translations, is the most challenging. And if the translator happens to be a poet himself, his translation is usually superior to that done by a non-poet.
Translation, in a real sense, is for a poem or a life to be reborn in another context of words, like Phoenix Nirvana. It is my belief that this Chinese-English textbook of 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012), under the collaboration of Chinese and overseas poetry translators and sinologists, is to regain life in the world of English, sparkling with charming artistic rays.
Here, I would like to list the names included in the Chinese-English textbook of 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012)（The included poets are in the order of their dates of birth）:

Lu Xun, Shen Yinmo, Liu Bannong, Hu Shi, Guo Moruo, Lai He, Xu Zhimo, Wang Duqing, Wen Yiduo, Li Jinfa, Bing Xin, Zhang Wojun, A Long, Wang Jingzhi, Liang Zongdai, Zhu Xiang, Luo Niansheng, Dai Wangshu, Sun Dayu, Feng Zhi, Zang Kejia, Li Guangtian, Su Jinsan, Yin Fu, Ai Qing, Bian Zhilin, Qin Zihao, He Qifang, Xin Di, Ji Xian, Zhong Dingwen, Tian Jian, Chen Jingrong, Hang Yuehe, Mu Dan, Du Yunxie, Cai Qijiao, Tang Shi, Peng Yanjiao, Tang Qi, Zheng Min, Zhou Mengdie, Hu Pinqing, Chen Xiuxi, Yuan Kejia, Huan Fu, Zeng Zhuo, Liang Zhihua, Lü Yuan, Yang Lingye, Tu An, Niu Han, Shi Tianhe, Lin Hengtai, Kong Fu, Xia Jing, Gong Liu, Yu Guangzhong, Luo Fu, Li Qing, Luo Men, Xiang Ming, Wen Xiaocun, Rong Zi, Yang Huan, Bai Hua, Shang Qin, Chiu Pin, Zheng Ling, Shu Lan, Chan Sirisuwat, Loiushahe, Zhang Mo, Ya Xian, Ma Boliang, Shao Yanxiang, Zheng Chouyu, Han Han, William Marr, Chang Yao, Lee Kuei-shien, Dai Tian, Wai-lim Yip, Wu An, Bai Qiu, Zhang Shijian, Lin Ling, Han Mu, Hsu Chicheng, Lin Huanzhang, Yang Mu, Shi Ying, Huang Xiang, Du Guoqing, Gao Ge, Ya Mo, Hua Wanli, Lan Haiwen, Yun He, Zhang Cuo, Xi Murong, Fu Tianlin, Zhou Tao, Fu Tianhong, Li Minyong, Shi Zhi, Zhang Ye, Leung Ping-kwan, Luo Qing, Mo Yu, Bei Dao, Jiang He, Mang Ke, Shen Qi, Duo Duo, Li Gang, Li Xiaoyu, Zhou Lunyou, Li Yufang, Shu Ting, Hai Shang, Yang Zongze, Yan Li, Wang Xiaolong, Yu Jian, Yang Ze, Liang Xiaobin, Yang Lian, Zhai Yongming, Wang Xiaoni, Mao Han, Gu Cheng, Bai Hua, Xia Yu, Lin Hua, Ouyang Jianghe, Zi Wu, Zhang Shuguang, Liu Cheng, Yang Ke, Da Xie, Zuo An, Wang Jiaxin, Yuan Changming, Liao Yiwu, Wang Shunbin, Yang Ran, Ye Shibin, Wei Ming, Yan Yuejun, Bei Ling, Lv De’an, Luo Yihe, Fang Wenzhu, Han Dong, Meng Lang, Jidi Majia, Chen Dongdong, Chen Kehua, Lu Yimin, Zhang Zao, Ding Dang, Liu Manliu, Xue Yang, Yang Li, Lin Yaode, Hong Ying, Aerdingfu Yiren, Liang Xiaoming, Xi Chuan, Huang Canran, Zhong Dao, Li Yawei, Zhao Xingzhong, Chu Zi, Jie, Chen Meiming, Hai Zi, Na Ye, Nan Ou, Mo Mo, Zhu Likun, Zang Di, Tu Ya, Diablo, Shen Wei, Yao Hui, Xiao Hai, Feng Chu, Shu Cai, Xie Yixing, Gu Ma, Ma Ke, Yi Sha, Wei Se, Zhang Zhizhong, Ye Zhou, Mo Xue, Pu Dong, Lei Pingyang, Yu Nu, Ma Qidai, Ge Mai, Hou Ma, Zhao Siyun, Xi Du, Tang Shi, Xu Jiang, Chen Xianfa, Lan Lan, A Mao, Yang Jian, Wu Touwen, Zhou Sese, Yang Lin, An Qi, Luo Guangcai, Zhou Yunpeng, Jin Lingzi, Meng Ling, Dong Yue, Di Bai, Zhao Weifeng, Lin Zhongcheng, Huang Lihai, Yao Bin, Yang Xie, Duo Yu, Yin Lichuan, Li Xiaoluo, Hai Xiao, Mu Cao, Jiang Fei, Yang Jun, Zhu Jian, Shen Haobo, Ding Cheng, Li Cheng’en, Wu Xiaochong

After three years of efforts, now the Chinese-English textbook of 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012) is to be published for the readers, both Chinese and overseas, to appreciate and criticize.
In the process of compiling this book, I have been encouraged and supported by Chinese and overseas poets, critics, translators, and sinologists, hence my homage and indebtedness to all of them!
Poetry is immortal, and art is eternal.
The foregoing is my preface.

                                                                                        June 28, 2013; Chongqing, china

bionote of the Editor

Diablo (1965— ), whose original mane is Zhang Zhi, English name Arthur Zhang, and pen name Wuyuelou (Moonless Tower), with ancestral place of Nan’an of Chongqing, was born in Phoenix Town of Baxian County, Sichuan Province. He is doctor of literature and honorary doctor in humanism, and has successively been engaged in many professions. He is the current chairman of the International Poetry Translation and Research Centre, executive editor of The World Poets Quarterly (multilingual), editor-in-chief of the English version of World Poetry Yearbook, embassador in China of the International Poets Association in Chile, and foreign academician of Greek International Literature & Arts and Science Academy. He began to publish his literary and translation works since 1986. Some of his literary pieces have been translated into over twenty foreign languages, such as English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Romanian, Danish, Hungarian, Bengalese, Italian, Swedish, Korean, Slavic-Mongolian, Serbian, Hebrew, Arabic, Slovak, Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Albanian, etc., to be included into dozens of domestic and overseas anthologies. He has ever won poetry prizes from Greece, Brazil, America, Israel, France, India, Italy, Austria, Lebanon, and Macedonia. His main works include poetry collections such as RECEITA (Portuguese-English-Chinese), SELECTED POEMS OF DIABLO (English), POETRY BY ZHANG ZHI (German-English-Portuguese), Selected Poems of Diablo (Chinese-English), collection of poetry criticism entitled Series Essays on Avant-Garde Chinese Poets, etc. In addition, he has edited Selected Poems of Contemporary International Poets (English-Chinese), Selected New Chinese Poems of 20th Century (Chinese-English), A Dictionary of Contemporary International Poets (multilingual), The Book Series of World Poets (Bilingual), and Chinese-English Textbook 300 New Chinese Poems (1917—2012) , etc.

bionote of the tranlating editor

Zhang Zhizhong (1966— ), his ancestral place is Boai County of Henan Province. He successively obtained a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from Zhengzhou University, a master’s degree in English and American literature from Tianjin Foreign Studies University, and a doctor’s degree in translation studies from Nankai University, and he has done his postdoctoral study in aesthetics of poetry translation at Henan University. He is now director of Translation Studies Center of Tianjin Normal University, and professor of Foreign Languages College of Tianjin Normal University. Meanwhile, he is guest editor of The World Poets Quarterly, vice chairman of International Poetry Translation and Research Centre, and translation reviser of New Poetry, a large-scale periodical sponsored by the Research Institute of Lierature & Art of Chongqing University of Technology. He has done a huge amount of translation, including over 50 classic American movies (English-Chinese), the 84 episodes of TV play The Romance of Three Kingdoms and the movie entitled The Tale of Sister Liu (Chinese-English), etc. Until now, he has published 44 books (11 in collaboration with others), 70 academic papers, and over 3,500 translated poems. Besides, he has published his own poems. In October, 2003, he received scholarship from Nankai University; in November, 2003, he obtained Excellence Award in the 15th National Translation (Chinese-English) Competition for Youth Sponsored by Han Suyin; in December, 2005, he was entitled as the Best International Translator for 2005; in November, 2006, he won the Prize for Distinguished Translator in the 2nd World Poetry Prizes Sponsored by Dr. CHOI Laisheung; in March, 2007, he was entitled as the academic leader for 2006 by Henan Provincial Educational Bureau, and in September, 2011, he won the Translation Prize of “Contemporary Chinese Poetry Prizes (2000—2010)”.

PP's Pushcart Nominations(2013) Announced

this is the official list of our PP's nominations for the Pushcart Prize for our publication year of 2013::

1. Robert Sheppard: Moby Dick
2. Koon Woon: A Season in Hell
3. Niall O'Connor: House
4. Stephen Page: Transformations
5. Diablo: The Doomsday
6. Allen Qing Yuan: China Charm: For Yuan Lai

in the next few weeks, we will feature the above individually on our facebook for our readers, friends, and/or associates.

[note: to be 'fair' to all our candidates in terms of time duration or readerly exposure, we select one poem from each issue/season, depending exclusively upon the number of pageviews it has received since its posting on our site. the other two are, as we made clear yesterday, 'editorial/political' choices, also based to some extent on the numbers of pageviews]
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as we have upgraded PP to a publishing house, we will shortly announce our first publications. in the mean time, we will try to find someone to help construct a new website for the press.

PP's Pushcart Nomination Process

today we have just received the confirmation call from Pushcart Prize office that though a canadian-based online magazine, we at Poetry Pacific are eligible to make annual Pushcart nominations - this is really encouraging, since we have one more powerful way to promote the poets and poetic works featured on our Site.

tomorrow we will announce our nominees both here and at our facebook, before sending out all the six poems to the office in new york, which we have decided upon for the prestigious prize.

this is the way how we nominate the six poems in principle:
four of them will be exclusively determined by the number of pageviews they have ever received since their postings in the past publication year (from november 2012 to october 2013); in other words, they are actually nominated by our readers as they have had most pageviews. the remaining two will be chosen by PP editors in terms of their editorial preferences and the number of pageveiws each has received.

apparently, the first rule is based on the principle of democracy, while the second one is a bit more subjective and 'political.' we believe this nominating process or method is most appropriate for PP, at least for now.

Changming: Out of Order Temporarily

because of an impending hearing at Residential Tenancy Office on 17 sept, i have been suffering tremendously from acute anxiety disorders in addition to all symptoms of hcm and ischemia and, at the same time, fighting fiercely with two most unfriendly situations ever encountered or known of in my entire life. in consequence, i have almost completely stopped functioning as a literary person, no writing poetry, no making poetry subs, no reading/accepting poetry for Poetry Pacific, not even thinking about poetry/publication... first time in the past 10 years also.

one thing of note here, on the night of sept 7 (sat), i had a nightmare, where i carried my sick younger poet son in a large brown-colored paper bag trying to go to hospital in the rain, but somehow he shrank into two bones and then vanished. i cried my heart out in unbearable grief, until later i found him alive and back miraculously in a house where my mother appeared. suddenly thrown into such ecstasy, i could not help kneeling down and kowtowing to him. yesterday, i called my mother about this dream, who assured me that this is a good sign!

in early august, i did write about 20 poems, half of them about my most recent experience. hope i can find the time and energy to rework on them all, getting back to my normal creative life...
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sept 16: the three crisis situations i have been facing at the same time since june perhaps result really from my failure to have visited the Puti center for the last year, where i used to do some volunteer work every wendesday from 2010 to 2012.  fortunately, one crisis was temporarily over in an official sense on 9 sept. of the other two, one will unfold significantely tomorrow...

on sept 13, friday, i had a talk with a fortune teller from taiwan, first time in my life. mr Liu said, born in the year of the rooster, my 'eight characters' show that i am a man of water-fate, who has strong water, but lacks wood. if i live/function like natural water, i will live a happy and accomplished life. as a water-fated rooster, i get support from wood, but should avoid anything associated with soil/earth. i can be prosperous and highly successful if i keep moving like water, especially towards the west, if i engage in educational/cultural  activities. by nature, i love anything or anyone associated with metal or wood.  according to him, i am extremely sensitive, and have natural powers to see and connect with the other world, like a shaman, but i need some master to help develop and bring out such powers. the fengshui with my house is not good, mainly because there is too much earth around my house, something bad for me. while alive, i should live in a house facing towards the east. between age 3 and 8, i should have some bad years; so did or will i between age 13 and 18, 28 and 33, and between 58 and 63 but i will have good years in general between age 53 and 78, when i get much 'wood'. i should be careful between june and july 2018, when i have to face much 'earth.'  my wife is a metal-fated woman, supposed to be a helpful source, just like my elder son, also a metal-fated man who will be rich and successful. my younger son is a fire-fated man, who should be particularly cautious about traffic or transportation from nov 2 to dec 3, 2013. -- all this is interesting enough for me to write some poetry about.

indeed, every time i feel relatively good and comforting about my existence, there is a big trouble waiting for me close down the road. so, i should try to overcome any feeling of satisfaction about my life.

every few years, i would be suffering from an unbearable hard hit, emotional, physical, financial, career-related, some or all at the same time. in 1980, 1988, 1994, 2001, (2008), and 2013 in particular. a really vicious pattern of profound suffering. i survived in 1980, so will i in 2013.

although i never trouble trouble, but troubles always troubles me - that's the most troublesome part of life.

the biggest or most serious issue i am facing now is that i am afraid of having to face an issue.

i feel nervous and anxious about anything that is out of my control, such as a red light, a telephone ring, a knock at the door.

how i wish to be left alone, forever!
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sept 17: the hearing between 9:00 and 10:00 am today was successful in the sense that both parties and witnesses got connected to the conference call and attended, but the decision made by the arbitrator was surprising: he upheld my two-month instead of 1-month notice but extended the date until the end of november, exactly 2 months later than expected. that means, our situation will be continuing.

3 surprises about the hearing that can teach me a lot about the canadian sociolegal system: 1) the hearing procedures were greatly different from what we had expected or read about when we did case studies;2) the arbitrator seemed to act more like a mediator than like an arbitrator, as he tried to find a common ground between the 2 parties, rather than uphold a principle; 3) the arbitrator appeared to make his decision in favour of the other party because he chose to ignore my witnesses' testimonials and statements, not to mention circumstantial evidence.

given our mental and health conditions, we simply cannot afford to apply for a review or another hearing, nor do we have enough social, legal or financial sources to go ahead with it. besides, i dislike this kind of exhausting game.

considering we have actually lost today, i just hope us two parties to be on good terms as before. i always believe 'friendly come, friendly go'. am i wrong trying to follow this typical chinese social or interpersonal principle?

a little wonder: how come this site has had 245 pageviews today, way more than ever before?
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Changming: Hall of Fame Certificate -TL (2013)

on august 15, i received an email from Torrid Literature, informing me that i have been listed as an official Hall of Fame member for 2013:

 

link::http://torridliterature.com/Changming_Yuan.html

page:: http://torridliterature.com/Hall_of_Fame.html

web:: www.torridliterature.com | http://shop.torridliterature.com

Facebook | Twitter  

Snakeland: Changming's Daily Ordeal

as there are several crisis situations in my personal life that are all taking place at the same time, i have been experiencing perhaps the very most difficult time in my entire life, which started towards the end of june. while there is no simple, easy or fast solution to any of them, i am suffering both physically and psychologically in an unbearable way - today i am beginning to receive acupuncturist treatment, drink traditional chinese herbal medication, and take ativan or lorazepam pills to fight against acute stress disorder. (my own diagnosis is ischemia-based cardiac neurosis, which my family doctor said she had no idea of). overwhelmed with the fear of personal/family safety as well as with financial, physical and psychological hardships, i feel extremely nervous, especially when talking, even with a friendly acquaintance. but for the past couple of weeks,  i have been dealing with lawyers, government officials, police officers, accountants, realtors, insurance representatives, in addition to half a dozen of individuals concerned. the only good thing about what has been going on in my recent life is that i have come to realize this:

i am (perhaps we are all)  living in a snakeland, where there are as much blue sky, golden sunlight, fresh air as many smiles or good-looking human figures as cobras, mambas, taipans, adders, kraits and vipers...

as before, i will survive eventually, as all this is becoming bygone with every passing minute. after all this, i will write more poetry about such daily ordeal; and begin to write my novel, long conceived, tentatively entitled home leaving.

TRAFFIC LIGHT: Allen's first poetry book just released

around 6:30 pm today, we released Allen's first poetry collection, 50 pages, titled TRAFFIC LIGHT, via lulu.com, only 6 dollars per copy, readily available at http://www.lulu.com/shop/allen-qing-yuan/traffic-light/paperback/product-21138162.html.

this is the very first publishing project in hard copy undertaken by Poetry Pacific as a press. in the future, we will place open calls for manuscripts, and try to publish more, better, and more frequently...

today is also the first day of paid work Allen has even done since he was born.

but today is also a nightmarish day for the poetry author as a man in real life: here in vancouver, as in any other part of north america, the western hemisphere, or the entire world, today's human society is becoming more and more like a true snakeland, a place where we can get bitten by deadly poisonous snakes anytime, anywhere, despite of the sunshine, blue sky, green trees, flowers, even smiles...

a day to remember, to think, to write

LANDSCAPING Just Released from Flutter Press

my second poetry collection titled Landscaping was released from Flutter Press on 17 july 2013. here are the links to the press, as well as to lulu.com [39 pgs, 25 poems, $7.50]::
1. flutter press: http://flutterpress2009.blogspot.ca/search/label/Changming%20Yuan;
2. lulu.com:http://www.lulu.com/shop/changming-yuan/landscaping/paperback/product-21118231.html     

 There is lush beauty and fierce restraint in the poetry of Changming Yuan. He has a finely-honed sense of nuance, a sensibility that embraces both nature and  mankind. The musicality of his words draws us in, its intimacy lingers in our hearts. “Close your eyes,” he writes in Landscaping, “Stay still/ And you can feel/ The moon’s silver needles/ Softly pointed/ Penetrating tranquility. . . .”

--Susan Terris, Author of Ghost of Yesterday: New & Selected Poems and Editor of Spillway & In Posse Review

I found Changming Yuan's collection of short poems to be inspiring even through the darkness found everywhere in nature; there is also a soft, uplifting tone to his words that resonated throughout the read.

--Sandy Benitez, Editor of Poppy Road Review and Flutter Press


"On a cloudless day. The tone of soft rain on hot asphalt. Landscaping is another world within this one. A beautiful book."
--DeWitt Brinson Asst. Editor The Exquisite Corpse, PANK

unfortunately, my books never sell well, but at least i have finally had this first chapbook out. submitted on 11 may 2013 and accepted on 13 may, this collection contains actually most of my 'best' nature/landscape poems.

i have written and published enough reasonably good poems for at least another 10 collections, from more traditional (personal /philosophical/cultural /sociopolitical) to highly experimental (ideographic /logographic /lexcal), but i do not know when, where or how i can get them published. for me, it seems easy to publish individual poems, but almost impossible to publish my poetic work in the print book form.

in particular, canada has refused to support or even encourage me in this respect - that's why i have refused to be identified as a 'canadian poet'; rather, i am a self-exiled international poetry scribbler.

9 interview questions for poetry editors

today, i hit upon the idea of asking 9 fundamental questions of every poetry editor i can find, who is welcome to answer only one or all the nine questions in anyway s/he prefers to. instead of raising questions for its chatroom only, i will introduce this section to my magazine Poetry Pacific (2.2), to be released on august 5. hopefully we can get some interesting responses. ( i have come up with another organization idea, but i want to see how this interview idea goes first.)

pasted below are the questions i have just finished preparing - '9' being the maximum number that implies 'enduring' or longevity' in traditional chinese culture::

9 FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS FOR POETRY EDITORS

1. Given the ways contemporary authors have been trying to compose all kinds of poetry, how would you define ‘poetry’?

2. Many people say poetry is dying. Do you agree or disagree with this statement, and why?

3. What defining features do you think ‘best’ poetry should possess? In other words, what is your personal or working definition of ‘best’ poetry?

4. What are the most important makings of a ‘great’ poet? – please name 3 greatest poets the world has produced thus far.

5. Who are the 3 most important or noteworthy contemporary poets according to your personal/working criteria.

6. Considering the contemporary poetry writing/publishing reality, what are the most important changes that you think should be made to promote poetry as a worthy cause?

7. Which 3 poetry editors or magazines would you like to recommend to all poetry lovers? Or, which 3 are your most favorite poetry editors/journals?

8. What are the most important or interesting things that you have you learned about poetry writing/publishing as a poetry editor?

9.  What is the most or least enjoyable part of being a poetry editor?

Traffic Light - First Poetry Collection by Allen Qing Yuan

on my way to send out an important mail to cra yesterday morning, i decided to upgrade Poetry Pacific into a real publishing house sooner than originally planned.  as soon as i got home, i registered with lulu.com, and began to learn how to publish paperback books via lulu.

at the same time, i decided to publish Allen Qing Yuan's short collection, tentatively titled TRAFFIC LIGHT, as our very first paperback book. once i become familiar with all the production procedures, i will place an open call for poetry manuscripts, and then other materials...

now i have finally plunged into print publishing on my own, something i have always been wanting to do since 1990 when i began to publish/edit Saskatchewan Chinese News in saskatoon. -c

[archivied]: Natural Confrontations: A Group Poem by CY

The following is a group of poems all titled 'Natural Confrontations,' which have been published online or in print by various journals in the past couple of years: 

1.Crow

A baby raven

Popping up from nowhere

Tries to

Establish itself:
one dark truth
On the skeletal tree top
Yawing fiercely
Towards the sky, the wind, the buildings
The fields and the entire afternoon
All so fluffily white
In jade-toned snow

2. Seagull 

As if right from heaven

A snowy seagull charges down

Trying to pick up the entire ocean

With its bold beak

As the tsunami raises

All its fierce fists

In sweeping protection 

Against earth’s agitation

In foamy darkness

3. Plum Blossom

Without a single leaf

Grass-dyed or sun-painted

To highlight it  

But on a skeletal twig

Glazed with dark elegies  

A bud is blooming, bold and blatant

Like a drop of blood

As if to show off, to challenge

The entire season

When whims and wishes

Are all frozen like the landscape

4. Eddy  

A gossamer-like breeze 

Left far behind

By a running dog

Tries to strike

The stagnated twilight

Hanging above the whole city

Before the storm sets in

5. Bamboo 

From under

A bulky boulder

Sitting still, meditating

Like a Buddha

A tiny bamboo sprout

Has just broken the earth

Ready to shoot up

Against the entire sky

6. Grass

Inspired by spring’s spirit

You turn all your life

Into a pair of green swords

No matter how many times

Your head and heart

Are both trodden 

You still hold them high

Against the summer sky

7. Leaf

Like a wounded soldier

Firmly holding his position

You are the only one

Still hanging there

To blockade the invasion

Of a whole cold season

8. Firefly

Burst with courage

You are flying around, using

Your little light

Like a sharp scissor tip

To rip off the heavy curtain

Of all the darkness

Blown out of frenzy dreams

9. Cloud

Your body so light

Soft, short, never

Even having a fixed shape

Yet you resist the strongest

Summer sun, trying to

Shield every ray it shoots down

Towards the huge empire 

Getting increasing hot on earth

10. Octopus  

To escape

From your predator

You eject the ink out of

Your little body

As if to dye the whole ocean

Into thick night  

11. Orchid

Deep in the valley

Alone on a shady spot

You bloom aloud, though

There are neither eyes

Nor ears open nearby

Paying the slightest attention

To your shape or melody

Be it ever so fragrant

So fulfilling 

12. Lotus

           

From foul, decayed silt

At the very bottom

Of a big lake of dirty murk

You shoot clean

Against the morning sun

Always pure

Crystal

Unpollutable

13. Corn

With a small body

Of teeth, you have bitten off

Every golden minute

From the warm day

Hoping to collect and store

All the sunlight

Of the passing season  

14. Cuckoo

With a thin

Blood-throated voice

You call out aloud

Trying to wake up

Millions of millions

Of trees and rocks

All deeply lost in

Their cold dreams

Of last winter

15. Ant

Stretching its hair-like limbs

As far as it can

The ant embracing

The tallest Douglas tree

In the forest

Attempts to shake off

All its leaves

Branches, and even

To uproot it

16. Vortex

Turning, twirling

In ever smaller circles

A vortex in the stream

Seems to be sucking in

All the waters on earth

Like the black hole 

Trying to swallow

The whole universe

17. Feather

A white fluffy plume

From an unknown bird

Happening to fly by

Drifts around, falling down

Slowly, as if to wipe out

All the dust at dusk

With its invisible fingers

18. Squirrel

Dripping along

From its freshest wound

A squirrel runs zigzag

Across a forlorn field

As if to melt

All the ice

In the valley, or

To warm up

The hardened heart of the winter

19. Meteorite

With a resolution

Harder than a diamond

You burn yourself up

As your strike down from high above

Trying to warm up

The entire universe, even

At the cost of your own life

Short, but like a prolonged exclamation mark

Changming Yuan: Outbursts (3)

born in 1957, i used to feel too mentally old and too physically young for my age, but now i am feeling otherwise. i never keep a diary, but today i want to have an online journal entry to record an important night in my life.

since i went to bed around 11:30 last night, i have been burning with thinkings and, as a result, i did not get any sleep. i have had most of these ideas for quite a long time, but they haunted me so badly last night that i feel the need to release my outburst now:

- i hit upon / developed a lot of publication initiatives, intellectually:
1. east-west / sino-america / english-chinese review, a yearly online publication to begin with. a non-gov't, non-profit journal, with editorial focuses on cross-cultural issues such as political, military, cultural, diplomatic, economic, literary and folk topics;
2. w w / www yearbook. an annual online publication to start with, focusing on human wisdom;
3. poetry pacific press / pp press / yuans press. a publishing house to publish poetry online first, then chapbooks, full-length collections, and other genres of literature;
4. changming yuan, a blogsite publishing/archiving all my writings, even those to be translated from chinese into english or otherwise. currently, yuanspoetry does not seem to be fitting, esp since Allen is becoming less and less active poetically as he is to attend university, majoring in commerce. or perhaps i should just change yuanspoetry into changming yuan - my chinese pen name i used when i published my first academic essay and monograph in china in 1988.

besides, i found about 10 topics to write mini-essays about in chinese, to be posted on my chinese blogsite at creaders.net; also decided upon two sub-genres of 'found verse': 'last stanzas,' and 'newspaper poems';

- i reflected upon my health condition, physically:
since childhood, i have been suffering from many symptoms of a weak heart, with my heart muscle born to be deformed or abnormally thicker. hcm as it is called and known to me now, but nothing is really confirmed. short breath,  constant dizziness, more frequent nausea, chronicle fatigue, frequent insomnia - unfortunately, i have never met a good or helpful doctor, either in china or in canada.

from head to toe, i am having too many problems: a pair of poorly-focused eyes with a troubling weak vision, chronicle tmg, occasional toothache, neck problems, frequent stiff shoulders, chronicle back pain, stomach issue, bad prostate problem, etc; nothing seems to be really normally good;

- i thought about my inner reality, psychologically:
all my life, i have been suffering increasingly from unfair and often unbearable lack of luck, love, friendship, and understanding (not to mention appreciation and recognition). lonely, isolated and totally marginalized, i strongly feel i have been overdraft mentally as well as physically, always trying to challenging myself and push myself beyond my own limits. my family, esp my wife, has been treating me as a money-making machine - now i am 99% of such a machine. as a matter of fact, there are too many paradoxes about my life as a human being - i wrote a poem listing all such major paradoxes. for instance, i always love but seldom feel loved...

strangely, this time i did not cry my heart out, not even shed a single teardrop as i probably might have, being such an emotional and sensitive guy.

i still vividly remember my first two outbursts::
1. on the chinese new year's day in 1981, while still a graduate student at tianjin normal university, i cried my heart and soul out when i spent the cold evening alone on the entire campus, crying for nearly an hour over my loss of first love, my stress from studies, my feeling of loneliness and, in particular, my worries about my future or career;

2. on the rainy evening of 6 august 2004, while climbing all by myself a hill behind our hotel during our first and so far our only family tour (to banff, alberta), i burst into tears and almost cried myself to death, as i thought about all the hardships i had been suffering, and about the meaningless life i had been leading. that was the day i began to write and later to publish poetry in english;

indeed, i feel i am too mentally young and too physically old for my age now. i am aware i could theoretically die a sudden death anytime as result of a heart failure and, instead of fearing it, i actually anticipate and welcome it, although i do wish i could live another 10 years at least so that i could do some of the things i have wanted, to write, to publish, for instance.

as Keats wished once: o for another ten years, please...

Y, Y by Changming Yuan

yum-yum, you seem to
You are really haunted by this letter
as rich as old as the soil
yes, yes, with your yellowish skin
You seem obsessed with the first letter of the word
...
these are the first lines of a whole group of poems all titled 'y' - in fact i have no idea about exactly how many y-poems i have ever written and/or gotten accepted or published:  over a year ago, a computer motherboard crash caused me to lose all my files and  records, including those for my poetry subs and accepts, and this week, the upgrading and repairing of my computer has been making me undergo a similar disastrous experience.

that's why i often feel that the computer is more of a nuisance than of a convenience. modern hi-tech has made life both extremely convenient and troublesome.

other larger groups of poems that have exactly the same or similar titles are respectively:
'my crow'
'directory of destinies'
'directory of directions' 
'east idioms'
'natural confrontations'
...
as i mentioned in my interview with PANK, i have this bad habit of keeping writing poetry under the same title until i feel poetically exhausted. such habit has caused and will continue to cause much confusion and even trouble, but this is the way how sometimes my poetic inspirations work on me. for me, to write poetry and get it published is more important than anything else.

just in case i should have another computer crash in the future, i am recording this in my blog for archiving purposes - when i have time, i will try to find all my group poems and paste them here.

updates: pushcart nomination...

surfing randomly on the internet, i happened to notice a few minutes ago that "Kinship: for Yuan Hongqi" - one of my poems written in honor of my father, who died on 2 january 2012, was nominated by Mobius: The Poetry Magazine for the Pushcart Prize in 2012. what a little happy surprise! - for some reason, i have never received any notification to this effect. anyway, this is the fifth time my poetry has been nominated for the prize. for more details see http://www.mobiuspoetry.com/prizeawards.htm.

yesterday, i received 20 contributor's copies of my micro-chapbook titled Plein-Air [Paperback], published by Origami Poetry Project. the presentation, including the cover art, is so cute and so creative!  [link:: http://www.origamipoems.com/poets/180-changming-yuan].

recorded in the following are all changming's Pushcart nominations as of today::

1. "Kinship: for Yuan Hongqi." nominated by Mobius for a Pushcart Prize for 2012 [link:: http://www.mobiuspoetry.com/prizeawards.htm];

2. "SAWS: A Seasonal Poem," nominated by Wilderness House Literary Review for a Pushcart prize for 2011. [link:: http://www.fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/1448];

3. "Word Collage: A Democratic Poem," nominated by Carcinogenic Poetry (Virgogray Press) for a Puschcart prize for 2010. [link:: http://virgograypress.com/2010/11/25/2010-virgogray-press-pushcart-prize-nominees/];

4. "S. E. W. N," nominated by Blue Fifth Review for a Pushcart Prize for 2009. [http://samofthetenthousandthings.blogspot.com/2009/11/bfrs-pushcart-nominations.html]. Also, originally published by BFR, my poem "Last Single Sale" was selected for inclusion in Best New Poems Online;

5. "Chansons of a Chinaman," nominated by my first poetry book publisher Leaf Garden Press for a Pushcart Prize for 2009. [link:: http://leafgardenpress.blogspot.com/]. - c
------------------------

on june 3, Allen passed his driver's road test early in the morning, and then as a family we went downtown to attend his graduation ceremony, where he received one thousand dollars of scholarship for community services.

in recent months, Allen has not been poetically active, but he did get 3 acceptances in may, and 1 in this month; tomorrow he is to write his last examination in high school , provincial english 12.

changming: a new collection Landscaping is due out soon via Flutter Press

today seems to be a great day for me:

although not as many individual poem acceptances so far this month (as, say, in april when i had 16 acceptances), i submitted 25 poems group-titled 'landscaping' to Flutter Press on 11 may, and this morning fount it accepted as a poetry collection. hopefully everything will be worked out smoothly in july, when it is supposed to be out. this will be my first 'chapbook' or second poetry book.

also, Poetry Pacific was formally listed on Duotrope today, as already in most other popular listing sites, such as New Pages, Adromeda, Poets & Writers, MUTT, Every Writer's Resource, Lannan and Selby's List.

i have not been actively seeking book publishers since the appearance of my first poetry collection Chansons of a Chinaman (Leaf Garden Press, 2009). there are 2 major concerns: on the one hand, it's too hard to find a book publisher willing enough to commit itself to putting out my poetic work in the book form; on the other, even if i have a collections published, i am afraid few readers would be interested enough in reading it as a whole, let alone to buy it. nor have i participated in any poetry/literary contests, with the only exception of cbc poetry prize, which i consider to be a literary lottery. my reason is simple: i am never a lucky person - no matter what i do or achieve eventually, it's always through hard labor and persistent effort. from today, i may try to approach book publishers, half-heartedly, from time to time, but my plan is to have my poetry published in more than 1,000 different literary outlets and then shift my publishing focus on my own book publishing as well as the publishing of Poetry Pacific. it may take another 3 to 5 years to do so.

i will keep paddling my little canoe...

Allen's May 5th Update

Hello all,

Recently I just spent my 18th birthday with my friends. We watched the highly anticipated "Iron Man 3", starring one of my favourite actors, Robert Downey Jr. Marvel movies have always been my favourite since I was like 12 so it was only fitting. My friends all pitched in and got me some very nice shoes. We also ate out at our usual burger place in down town. Overall, I felt like we strengthened our bonds as friends. But the main point of the blog post isn't about the party or my age.

It's about transitioning into adulthood.

It doesn't feel any different at first but then you begin to think about a lot of things. Becoming a young adult, what parts of your life should reach closure? Your interests? Your habits?

None. I think the only thing we should end is our dream-like reality. As teenagers, we are always thinking about the future. Now, things are different. We make decisions for ourselves that are constantly affecting the next step of our lives. So instead of thinking that the future is faraway, we should remember that the repercussions and results are all much closer than they seem.

Being able to love is a gift, so don't waste that love on anything that doesn't deserve it. Our friends and family deserve our love and attention because they deserve it and they do the same for us. If anything, I should be grateful. Our hobbies, our passions are all a part of our pursuit of happiness.

One of the main lessons in Iron Man 3 is that "we create our own demons". It's the introduction of new things that we have to keep mind. For example: responsibility. No one is more liable for our actions other than ourselves. I hope in retrospect, I will be able to look back and say this blog post was a perfect representation of my fundamental morals at the time.

Never rest in peace until you become a legend; even then, you will be much more alive than those who are living.

Live free,
Allen Yuan

PS Thank you.

[archived]: Changming Yuan Interviewed by PANK

The Lightning Room With Changming Yuan

[DeWitt Brinson / April 29th, 2013 / Interviews / Tags: Changming, chinese, corpse, Li Bai, poem, poetry, Yuan]

Changming Yuan like a leaf, like water, like a building seven hundred children tall.  (see Changming’s Skyline in our Jan issue)

1) I thought I recognized your name and then I realized you’re one of the first people I published when I worked with the Exquisite Corpse. Reading your bio, I see you’ve been published in almost 600 publications. So I guess it’s not that much of a coincidence. How has your poetry evolved since your first publication?

Thanks so much, dear Ed. DeWitt, for this opportunity to talk about my poetic work, and I feel truly honored! To begin with, poetry seems to run in the blood of my family. When my father died in January of 2012, my mother revealed that he had always wished to be a poet, though he never got anything published during his lifetime. Growing up in an impoverished Chinese village, I fell in love with poetry and dreamed about living like Li Bai at the age of 14 when I had my first exposure to poetry of any kind. Although I did make dozens of poetry submissions in China, I never got even a rejection slip. Luckily, many years after moving to Canada as an international student, I had one of my first English poems published in the summer of 2005 and, ever since then, I have been writing and publishing much more poetry than I myself imagined – thus far, my poetry has appeared in nearly 700 literary journals/anthologies across 26 countries. Also interesting is perhaps that at the age of 15, my teenager younger son Allen Qing Yuan began to publish poetry worldwide, apparently under my influence: Every time I receive a contributor’s copy, I ‘force’ him to take a look at my work and, after much reading, he has turned out an actively publishing poet in his own right. Now we have formed a ‘father-son comraderie in poetry,’ as some editors like to call us, to publish our own newly-started literary magazine called Poetry Pacific (poetrypacific.blogspot.ca), which has been developing surprisingly well – by the way, all poetry submissions are welcome at yuans[at]shaw.ca. While my elder son George Lai Yuan, a busy senior engineer in Silicon Valley, had his first poem published. Early this year, my poetic work has finally begun to appear in Chinese media since last winter, but ironically only after I became an internationally widely published practitioner of the art.

2) How is your Skyline different when someone else reads it?

For me, every reading (of the same work) is a new poem. Each time my Skyline is read, it may look more like a monster’s mouth, a dream vision, a meeting line between sea and coast, or a limbo between hell and heaven, depending upon the reader’s frame of mind.


3) What are three bad habits of your poetry?

I love this question, as I have many very bad habits! For one thing, I often make blanket-submissions: desperate to get my work published, I fitfully make several hundreds of submissions to magazines without reading their guidelines beforehand – I have neither the time nor the patience. Since I have been writing a lot of poetry on a regular basis on the one hand and cannot find a publisher to present my poetic work in the book form on the other, I hope to get to as many readers as i can in this only way. Worse still, I love to play with what I call ‘module’ poetry or do poetic collaging; that is, I enjoy grouping and arranging my short individual poems into a larger structured piece in different ways to bring out more poetic possibilities. This habit may sound like a tendency towards ‘self-plagerism’; and a good example is my ‘N.E.W.S.’(‘W.E.N.S.,’ ‘S.W.E.N’ or ‘Directory of Directions’). Worst of all, I often write a group of poems with exactly the same title: once I become haunted by a particular intriguing conceit, I could not help making repeated efforts until I feel exhausted, as in the cases of “Snowflakes’ and ‘My Crow.’ Resulting from this, I constantly get both my editor and myself confused about which one has been submitted to, accepted, or even already published by which magazine. Such lousy idiosycracies lead to nasty errors from time to time, but more important than anything else for me is to write and publish as much poetry as I can before death, which seems no longer far from me now.

4) When I read Skyline, I feel like I’m drinking a glass of water after having sex. Why do I feel that way?

I am not sure. Perhaps it has to do with the way the poem offers the reader the kind of feeling I hope to capture and convey, a clear and cool vision my mind’s eye sees whenever I recall the dawn or dusk view of a coastal city like Vancouver.

5) What politician would be most improved by reading Skyline?

I have no idea, but it would do no harm to politicians like G. W. Bush whose political vision appears to contain a bit too much frenzy.

6) You wake-up in a field of wheat beside Skyline. You can hear a dog barking somewhere far away. You’re lost. What does Skyline say to comfort you?

Between day and night, there is always plenty of cool time, when we can stop to think, about everything or nothing at all, isn’t there?

[the link:: http://www.pankmagazine.com/pankblog/interviews/the-lightning-room-with-changming-yuan/]
[this is cy's 3rd interview in 2013, and 4th since he began to publish poetry in english]

[archived]: Changming Yuan Interviewed by Horrified Press

Horrified Press

4 hours ago

Changming Yuan's author spotlight is below...

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Hey, thanks for dropping by, Changming.

Q.) Why don't you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and which experiences in your life helped you decide to become a writer...

A.) This is how I wrote my first poem: on the evening of 6 August 2004, during our first family trip to Banff as tourists, I was climbing the mountain behind our hotel all by myself, since my wife and two sons all had refused to go together with me. Reflecting on my totally marginalized existence, and recalling all kinds of hardships I had been suffering, I became choked with sadness and could not help bursting into tears. To release this emotional tension, I tried to sing at the top of my voice those old songs I used to sing when I was forced to labor on a forest farm during the Chinese Cultural Revolution after graduation from high school in the mid-1970s. At the same time, I felt the urge to write something. At 8:35 pm, I finished scribbling my seed poem ‘The Lonely Climber’ in English on a piece of paper found on the mountain. Since that rainy moment, I have written more than 1,000 poems, and luckily had almost 900 of them published in literary journals/anthologies across 26 countries.

Q.) Changming, that's incredible. I'm speechless and in awe of such a personal journey. And in regards to your contributions to ' Tales of the Undead – Suffer Eternal' ('Morning Mists', 'Rioting' and 'City Nightscape'), give us a spoiler free insight to the concepts of your tales and what inspired you to write them...

A.) The three poems included in the anthology – 'City Nightscape,' 'Rioting' and 'Morning Mists' are a group of poems I have written in response partly to the 'occupy movement' of 2011-22, and partly to Lawrence Ferlinghett's 'Dragon's Teeth', published in LEFT CURVE (#34) where my poetry also happened to appear. In these three poems, I was trying to explore my own dark fantasies.

Q.) And you succeeded. Where do you see your writing career going in... for example, let's say ten years time? Is this the medium you want to write for? Where would you like to be?

A.) Hopefully, my health would allow me to live and keep writing for another ten years. By 2023, I would have had at least 20 collections ready and wish to have had at least 5 accepted by book publishers. More significantly, I would like to be duly recognized not only abroad but also within Canada, my own chosen country, without having to participate in (and win) major or 'numerous' poetry contests.

Q.) Who were your literary influences, Changming?

A.) No, I never had any, not really, although I do have some favorite poems by different authors. The poets I more or less like are Li Bai, Li Ho, Su Dongpo, John Keats, Lorna Crozier and Ye Chuan.

Keats is a personal favorite of mine from that list. Do you feel up to giving us some top 5's?

Q.) Top 5 Novels?

A.) When I was a teenager, I liked Ethel Lilian Voynich's GADLYFLY. While attedning Shanghai Jiaotong University, I enjoyed reading Howard Fast's SPARTACUS. Later, I found it interesting to read Luo Guanzhong's THREE KINGDOMS, Margaret Mitchell'S GONE WITH THE WIND, James Joyce's DUBLINERS. By the way, I most hated reading Herman Melville, Faulkner, Henry James, Katherine Mansfield and Virginia Woolf.

Q.) Top 5 Inspirational horror movies that affected your own working style?

A) None; I have never watched any horror movies.

Q.) Your Top 5 horror icons?

A) None, either.

Thanks for taking part in our little Q & A, Changming. This was a truly inspiring interview. And don't forget, fans of the gruesome and grotesque, our latest horror anthology, 'Tales of the Undead – Suffer Eternal', is available now from Amazon.com & Lulu.com

posted on facebook on 26 april 2013 - link:: https://www.facebook.com/horrified.press