12 feb 2014 the following poems have mostly been published online or in print since 2005.
Another Impasse
Writing from Vancouver West
To my former friends in China
I always feel hesitant
Whether to or not to use
The first person singular pronoun
As in ‘I do not really think so!’
Time and time again, they have
Unnecessarily reminded me of
The biggest difference in language
Between the east and the west:
“There in English you always
Spell your favourite word ‘I’
In big bold italic upper case, however
Here we have really rarely
Employed the word even in poetry”
In their writing practice (probably too long)
They either drop the pronoun or replace it
With many an impersonal thing like:
The present writer, the writing subject
The unlearned, the uncouth one
The old person/body, the little human/one
The trivial/insignificant/unmentionable
The president/manager/[ ] proper
The person per se, or more precisely:
[Your] inferior, [your] subordinate
[Your] stupid husband/brother/son
[Your] foolish wife/sister/daughter
[Your] humble [ ], or less humbly:
As [your] father/mentor/lord…
Instead of standing up for an unmasked person
‘I’ should try to remain hidden like a taboo
In Chinese
Chinglish Sayings
Adjectives
The moon over America is bigger and rounder than china
The crows in the rose garden are less black than the forbidden city
Adverbs
We natural follow our hearts more close than to our minds
Those standing most closest can strike most deadliest
Verbs:
The east wind will suppress the west wind is certain
We enjoy go watch play basketball on the weekend
Nouns:
Few Chinese individuals have really independent personality
In social relation face and golden mean are most important thing
Conjunctions:
Because china is the most populous country, so it has most problems
Tho our ancestors invented gunpowder, we used it for celebration only
Articles:
Firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea are seven things of every household
People take food as sky while emperor is just as too far away as sky is too high
Prepositions:
Since we without the condition, we strongly against this system
We are desirous getting into the stage though we lack of masks
Pronouns:
We find simply inappropriate to use ‘I’ or ‘me’ too often
My home is the only place in which myself really cares
Faulty Comparison with My Hometown
Like Vancouver, the climate of heart is mild all year round
Unlike the Lower Mainland, it is very hot in mid-China
The grasses on Grouse Mountain are similar to Luojia Mountain
The trees in Stanley Park are taller than the East Lake Park
The salmons in the Fraser River swim as far as the Yangtse River
Most residents in BC live much longer than Hubei Province
The Canadian Comedy
in London we speak like Yankees
in New York, we sound like Cockneys
we try to have American economy
British politics, French culture
yet we are somehow lost in British economy
French politics, and American culture
one reason is we only look skookum
another is too proud of our face off
our blue line, and especially our puck
more important perhaps, we pronounce z as zed
rather than zee, eh?
The Objective Case of a Pronoun
no statement begins with me
a word never capitalized
never allowed to be the subject
but doomed
to substitute an other
to receive action, always passively
even within quotation marks
in italics
or in the title itself
o, for a momentary justice
me to be an entity rather than a pro-form
D8: A MSG TXT Or a Cell Poem
WUD? R U OK?
PPL WANT C U
Y? –COZ U R GR8
I 4 1, I WAN2 C U 2
Y? – I LV U
OIC. U R XLNT2
I WAN2 C U 2
TTYL
C U 2MORO NITE
LOL
Egg* Poems: An English Languacultural History of China
1/ Ancient China
They used to drink tea
Wear silk
Eat from china
Think in terms of zen
And practice Confucianism
Only - is it true?
2/ Semi-Colonial China
Wearing cheongsam
These poor coolies arrived here
On sampans
Always ready to kowtow
To a tycoon
Who lived in Shangri-La
Eating dim sum
Drinking oolong
Playing mahjong
Gambling in a casino every day
Though reluctant to give cumshaw
3/ Mandarin China
Led by dao
A yin
Running dog
Wearing qipao
Is fighting against a yang
Paper tiger
With wushu
After getting brainwashed
Through maotai
Like a taikongnaut
At a fengshui spot
Dominated by qi
*A word (or person) with a Chinese origin living in the West is often called an ‘egg,’ which is white-skinned, but yellow-hearted.
[chinglish signs]
postcard mono plize [postcard store]
mobile phone electrizing [battery charge]
the road const ructino, please round to go [construction / detour]
adult care, condom, sexcare [sex shop]
please be well seated and always make yourself safe [buckle up]
please don't make confused noise when chanting [no noise during recitals]
excution in progress [construction ahead]
slip and fall down carefully [wet / slippery]
do drunken driving [no drinking and drive]
Y: Yellow Musings
Gold, lemon, butter, rapeseed flowers:
Pre-positioned, you function to lead
A whole column of evils as in the yellow
Peril, bastards, bellies, dogs, fish, guts
Journalism, heels, even men and pups
After words, you will become as noble
As imperial, as royal, or as Chinese
Yellow. That makes all the difference
Between a noun and an adjective
Between Chinese and English
LIFE within a Digitalized World
birth is a wonder, death is a hunter, nothing is in between except a number after a number
1 000000
1 0
1 0
0 1 000000 10101 1
1 1 0 0
1 0 10 0101
1 1 0 0
010 01 10 01010 1 0 1 01 010
Narrative Viewpoints (1): First-Person
Having perceived more shadows than lamps
More cries than songs
More raw coffee than refined honey
More rotten fish than yulan magnolia
More thorns than petals
I left my home village for a distant hill
began to hike with an unknown god
Since then, I have been moving
Moving around
From east to west
From yin to yang
From the outer to the inner, where I
Hope to relocate my soul, where I believe
My senses can better be entertained
On a rainy day, I will leave a short note
To my family, telling them
Never bother to find me, for I will have gone alone
Along an un-trodden trail, like a dying African elephant
Narrative Viewpoints (2): Omniscient
God in the West:
As long as I can get by in my way
I believe I must be doing the right thing
So, I will keep using all my powers
To convert all others and othernesses
Into the religion I have defined, and
Refined for them, despite their black hatred
Despite their red resistance
God in the East:
Longing to live in harmony with nature
You hate to interfere in the way yin
Seeks to balance with yang, or otherwise
Even when you try to enlighten others
You respect them, be it an ant, or a blade of grass
You would never do anything to them
That you would not be done by
Gods in between:
Feeling coerced, cheated, betrayed
Manipulated, offended, they all came
Down from heaven, up from hell
On a sunny afternoon
To join common humans on earth
Making love, or trading with them
For a heart’s hijab or a soul’s turban
Narrative Viewpoints (3): Third-Person Objective
A big bed, with only one leg visible
Under a chandelier, within a room
Neither too large nor too small
A clock ticking, tacking somewhere
A male lying on the bed
his limbs as hairy as a chimpanzee’s
A female riding on his top
Her body bobbing up and down
Short breaths, mixed animal calls
Curtains flapping against moonlight
All in dimness, something in progress:
A dreamy smell or smelly dream
English Irrationalities
There might be love in between gloves
But no egg in eggplant, or ham in hamburger
English muffins did not originate from England
Nor French fries from France
Sweetmeats are actually candies
While sweetbreads are meat though not sweet at all
Readers read, singers sing
But typewriters do not type, nor fingers fing
A mouse can multiply into mice
But a grouse never into grice
People may recite at a play and play at a recital
Their noses run while their feet smell
They park on the driveway, or drive on the parkway
Ship by truck and send cargo by ship
Teachers may be taught, but preachers are never praught
One goose may stand between two geese
So may one tooth between two teeth
But a booth can never between two beeth
If vegetarians eat vegetables
What would so-called humanitarians do to humans?
Semantic Absurdities
When stars are out, they are visible, but when lights are out, they are not
When your wind up your watch, your start it, but when you wind up a poem, you end it
Houses can burn up as they burn down, where you fill in a form by filling it out
A slim chance is the same as a fat one, but a wise man is by no means a wise guy
Quite a few and quite a lot are alike, but to overlook is not to oversee
The weather can be hot as hell in summer and cold as hell in winter
Before we die, our alarm clock goes off by going on
English vs Chinese (1)
All the most significant differences
Between the English and Chinese
Languacultures originate from one little fact:
In English, the first person singular
Has only one letter, is always capitalized
And can never be omitted in a sentence
While in Chinese there are at least
108 interchangeable expressions
To stand for the personality
Speaking or writing behind a human figure
That may or may not be presented at all
In a meaningful utterance
English vs Chinese (2): Similar Similes
As bitter as wormwood as goldthread rhizome
As bold as brass as the city wall
As happy as a cow as a lark
As old as the hills as the sky and the land
As tall as the Maypole as the wire pole
As cunning as a dead pig as a fox
As drunk as a mouse as mud
As thirsty as a camel as a dragon
As dumb as an oyster as a bottle
As hungry as a bear as a wolf
As industrious as an ant as a bee
As timid as a rabbit as a mouse
As stupid as a goose as a pig
As stubborn as a mule as an ox
As hardworking as a horse as a water buffalo
As wet as a drowned rat or hen
As listless as a hen or ant on the girdle
Should ‘I’ Join the Word: An Anagram Poem
The flute would become futile
The printed could turn intrepid
The gale might grow agile
The glue would feel like guile
The stratagem might smell like a magistrate
The brush could look like hubris
The barter would sound like an arbiter
DRAWERS: A One-Word Poem
The drawers
In the rented rooms of those drawers
Out of the top drawer
would be full of awe
if sketched awkwardly
by the warder
only for reward
during the war
Word Politics, Winter Olympics
According to Global Language Monitor, the following are the top three names, phrases and words that were used most frequently in 2009.
Gold/
Hu
without
Anger and rage
against
Spillcam
Silver/
Ipad
from
Climate change
to
Vuvuzela
Bronze/
The narrative
about
The Great Recession
to
Barack Obama
In No Sense, Or In A Sense
You are
in ascent;
I am to have
inner scent;
She is already
in a cent;
Aren’t we all
innocent?
Fragile, Archaic China
They listen to you
Surprisingly
Which china are you talking about?
They wondered
Which china are you talking about?
You certainly know
If you please… one accosted you
Which china on the rise? He demanded
You are referring to the ‘sleeping giant’ in the east
The fattening hog to be slaughtered and divided
The country with an elephant’s body
But a chick’s heart
All china out of fashion, he commented
Shrugging his non-colored shoulders
But which china? He persisted
Really antic stuff? China made in Jingde Town?
You really like china?
Blue china? Ming china?
Or perhaps Song china?
You coughed in good will
You realize something
China is interesting to see
Only for its long history
X Missing: Provincial Proverbs
Affection blinds season
Beauty may have fair flower, but ugly roots
Caesar’s wife must be above suspension
Drink only with the luck
Enough is as good as a beast
Fire that’s closest kept burns most in the fall
Good face is better than a good base
Handsome is as handsome buzz
Injuries are written in glass
Jill has every jack
Knowledge is no burden
Love is full of beer, love is without season
Money is often lost for want of honey
Nature is above nurture
One man’s feat is another man’s shit
Present to the eye, present to the kind
Question for question is filled with air
Reward and punishment are the calls of pity
Slow but sure wins the face
Trust is the mother of defeat
United we band, divided we call
Variety is the spice for a wife
Willows are weak but never bend for good
Youth never lasts for peril
Zeal without knowledge is a runaway source
Words, Only Words, Nothing but Words
Arranged in her order
They are not just politically correct
But richly colorful
Like rings of diamonds
Suitable for the crown only
Put in your way
They are nothing but clanked clichés
Rambling weeds in the fields of paper
Or scrambled eggs in a dirty bowl
If, If Only… subjunctive mood unsubjugated
I would jump madly with joy
I would go to the depth of limberlost to die an elephant’s death
I would charge forward with my car as if it were a super tank
I would tattoo the words on my butt and nake-run wildly in broad daylight
I would fuck my love to death at a bare hilltop
I would blast myself into a million bloody pieces
I would nail the president on a swirling swastika in front of a Buddhist temple
I would shoot like a burning comet beyond the milk way
I would cry my whole heart out and all my tears dry
I would stop the earth from rotating for seven days to recreate the world
I would put God in a blue cage before hanging it on Babel Tower
I would drive all spirits and ghosts back into their human shapes
I would roar like a whale pushing the sound waves three thousand miles away
I would…
Content Words
Amidst the waves sits still a stark noun
Like a coral island in the east sea
Looming in and out in the star light
Through the trees runs a little verb
As if to flee from one valley to another
In case the sun’s arrows should hit it too hard
Above the clouds thunders a series of adverbs
Their sounds too loud to produce an echo
Even in a great hall of fame
Beyond the skyline drift some adjectives
Ready to fall with last year’s narration
Greyer than the greyest patch of history
Hyper Grammatical Poems: Pronoun
Like a stage play
Reenacting an experienced
Or un-experienced
Moment in space
A place in time
Before an eager audience
To make their daily existence
Less repetitive
Less cumbersome
Less political
Hyper Grammatical Poems: Preposition
Exactly like a coordinate system
You locate
Any nominal identity
In time
In space
In logic
More like a physical linkage
You enjoy introducing
Each solitary soul
As an object
In an adjective or adverbial phrase
To modify
The more important elements of
A muted human statement
Hyper Grammatical Poems: Conjunction
A marriage broker
Coordinating
Males and females
For sexual intimacy
Or subordinating
A car, a computer, a house
To a home owner
Or correlating
Two ideas, two emotions, two parties
In a human context
Hyper Grammatical Poems: Verb
Just as the child
Plays the most dynamic role
In the life of a family
You make a statement alive
By acting
Growing
Or simply
Being
Substituting
Running short of bulbs
I planted some root words instead
Along the fence
In the backyard of my mind
All winter
They seemed dreaming under the frozen soil
When the last dews fly away
You will see certain three-colored tulips
Blooming aloud
Towards the early summer sun
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