yuanspoetry©: Languacultural Poems by Yuan Changming ©

WORDSCAPING

[a collection of poetry by yuan changming©]

1. Immigration

2. Yellow Comedy

3. Sell Liberation of Word’s Worth

4. Word Collage

5. Word Vogue

6. In No Sense, in a Sense

7. Light vs Shadow

8. Y

9. Spelling Test

10. The Banishment of First Person Singular

11. Etymology of Love

12. Dangling Modifier

13. Another Impasse

14. Still Life

15. On a Rainy Day

16. Behest Impressed

17. Collage of Voices

18. The Cosmic Music

19. The Way Forward

20. Chanson of a Chinaman

21. Fragile, Archaic China

22. Lexical Tourism

23. Media Warning

24. Provincial Proverbs

25. Sexual Slogans

26. The Black Bird

27. Awaiting

28. Reading behind the Lines

29. English Irrationalities

30. Politics vs Poetics

31. The Canadian Comedy

32. English Kanata

33. At the Eagle Pass

34. Open Opera

35. Behind a Ballad

36. Content Words

37. Across the Vast Open Range

38. Interpreting a Poem

39. The Making of a Best Poem

40. Poetry Penning

41. This Is a Line

42. The White Goose

43. East Idioms (1)

44. East Idioms (2)

45. East Idioms (3)

46. East Idioms (4)

47. East Idioms (5)

48. East Idioms (6)

49. East Idioms (7)

50. East Idioms (8)

51. Prosperous Tomorrow Programmed

52. Earthling Calling

53. ICQ

54. In the Lakeheart

55. Swirling Swastika

56. The Niagara Falls

57. Above the Skyline

58. Eyeglasses

59. Keatsian Variation

60. Home

61. The Triumph of Eight Trigrams

62. In Times like This

63. Personal Politics

64. The Fat Fabulous

65. On the Road

66. In the Prairies

67. Cat’s Cradle

68. Beside the Ball of Limbo

69. Allen in Wonderland

70. Will

71. Incomplete Imperatives

72. Harmony of Homonyms

73. Word Herding

74. Just a Quick Note

75. Voices

76. Grammatical Groundwork

77. Hypergrammatical Poems (1): Preposition

78. Hypergrammatical Poems (2): Conjunction

79. Hypergrammatical Poems (3): Verb

80. Hypergrammatical Poems (4): Pronoun

81. Faulty Comparison with My Hometown

82. Real Or Unreal Conditionals

83. Subjunctive Mood Unsubjugated

84. Set

85. Beginning

86. Coarse Language

87. I Love You

88. QUX

89. Should ‘I’ Join the Word

90. English vs Chinese (2): Similar Similies

91. X-Missing

92. Rain and Poetry

93. During Their Dialogues

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Immigration

To escape from the tyrannical logic

Of your mother tongue

You wandered, wandering

Through earth’s length and breadth

Subjecting your old self to another syntax

A whole set of grammatical rules

Strangely new to your lips and tips

To expand the map of your mind

Far beyond your home and haven

Yet in the meantime it becomes colonized

By all the puzzling paradoxes

Of this chosen language, for example:

Quicksand can be very slow

Boxing rings are in fact square

And a guinea pig is neither a pig

Nor is it from Guinea

Like you or me

Yellow Comedy

Using my yellow tail

I yellow-swam

From the Yellow River

As a yeast of the yellow peril

Against the yellow alert

In yellow journalism

With a yellow hammer

And a yellow sheet

I yielded to the yellow metal

At a yellow spot

¼ million yards away from Yellowknife

People call me yellow jack

Some hailed me as a yellow dog

When I yelped on my yellow legs

To flee from the yellow flu

Speaking Yerkish* like a yellow warbler

I have composed many yellow pages

For a yeasty yellow book

To be published by the yellow press

Don’t panic, I yell low.

* An artificial language developed for experimental communication between humans and chimpanzees.

Sell Liberation of Words’ Worth

Although with a broken pen soul

I am not writing tear ably or pointlessly

on the new clear issue for the magazine

run by a non-prophet society

set up on the basis of its members’ lie ability

To me, an operation would not secure but mean

a sentence to the peace in that infected area

As a banana author, I may lack a peel

but it is rarely better to turn left than to be all right

To avoid a rest, I’ve de sided to go fast on a weak day

then I will call my sun to rice in the mourning

after he falls in love at the first site

In deed, if we give the act an inch

it would become a ruler. Just like a life guard

I hope to keep all the buoys in line

With a film-like memory yet to be developed

I try to keep my head above the water

as I swim for word, yet I have no interest in the bank

Unlike a lawyer who may be debarred or a model

to be deposed, I’ll never become a poet to be decomposed

nor do I allow my train of thaw derailed; rather

I will commit sue side by continuing

to write worse or move in verse

Word Collage: A Politically Correct Poem

According to a poll conducted worldwide in 2008, these are the 50 “most beautiful English words.”

Mother of Passion, Smile

In love for eternality and fantastic destiny

At freedom or liberty

With tranquility or peace

In blossoms and sunshine

On the sweetheart gorgeous

To cherish enthusiasm, hope and grace

Under rainbow blue

Like sunflowers twinkling in serendipity

With bliss and lullabies

Beyond the sophisticated renaissance, cute and cozy

Under butterflies from the galaxy

At this hilarious moment beyond extravaganza

Against aqua sentiment

In a cosmopolitan bubble

Above pumpkins, bananas and lollipops

As bumblebees giggle

About paradoxes and delicacies

Despite the peek-a-boo behind an umbrella

Beside a kangaroo

Word Vogue: Another Politically Correct Poem

According to Global Language Monitoring (2009), the following words have appeared most frequently on flat and e/media over the past decade.

Global warming, with

9/11, before

Obama, through

Bailout, for

Evacuees, from

Derivatives, via

Google, behind

Surge, against

Chinglish, till

Tsunami

In No Sense, In A Sense

You are

in ascent;

I am to have

inner scent;

She is already

in a cent;

Aren’t we all

innocent?

Light vs Shadow

Was it the shadow?

Was it the shadow beyond?

Was it the shadow beyond the shadow?

Still fell the thick night,

When the heart blocked the light.

Yes, it is light!

It is light within!

It is light within light!

Loud sweeps the morning glow,

Where the mind has no shadow.

Y

yum yum yummy, you have
become so addicted
to this juicy alphabet
you can readily get high
high within your hairless skin
as yellowish as the banks
of the Huanghe River
less sleek than a china crane
but more fragrant than a young yucca
while its pronunciation can lead you
to the very truth you are pursuing, its shape
can grow from an unknown sprout
into an other Yggdrasil, where your soul
can perch, cawing glaringly
towards the autumn setting sun

Spelling Test

Happy

Happy is the baby who picks and plays with a plain bottle among all the fancy toys

Happy

Successful

The dog is successful when it finds the bone it wants to chew

Successful

Love

If we love animals, they will love plants in return

Love

Peace

When mice begin to enjoy playing with cats, there will be peace

Peace

Healthy

Children are healthy as long as they are eating, running and giggling

Healthy

The Banishment of First Person Singular

always capitalized

seldom in lower case

the only pro-form of my entire being

coded in my chosen language

impressive indeed

pronounced with a sole loud vowel

spelt in a powerful personal letter

without differentiating the sex

or even an actual human antecedent

unavoidable and irremovable

you are equally assumed in a sentence

either by a murmuring illiterate voice

or by a widely published phd pen

alas, if only the syntax could

hide or spare my humble self

sometimes

Etymology of Love

It is perfectly easy:

All you need to do is

To separate ‘be’

From the intended act

Or take out the first letter

From the ‘glove’

[on your personality]

or simply press

and thus cover

the ‘g’ [spot with

Your whole being

Bare]

Dangling Modifiers

to write your dead past

into a living essay

this chapter should be read

with your eyes and mind

both widely open

by perusing or pursuing

such perfectly bound books

all the essential rules

can easily be learned

about their sophisticated syntaxes

taking notes with all her attention

the idiomatic usages

of her adopting language

will be mastered well

over a small spot of time

heavily loaded with grammar

his whole being is

an isolated adverbial

often meant to modify

the wrong logical subject

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

Still Life

Blue blue, gray gray, green green

Fair fair, square square, light light

On a Rainy Day

You open, I

Close, or I

Open, you

Close, either

Your umbrella

Or mine

To keep

Both ourselves

Dry from

This cold

Rain, we

Have to

The one

And the same

Umbrella, if

We must

Walk

Hand in hand

Behest Impressed

from a messed nest to a jest fest

with a blessed crest and a dressed breast

the pressed guest had best detest

molest or invest in a west quest

for the chest of zest

in the assessed protest

against the test of pest

lest the rest vest

in the depressed or accessed

Collage of Voices

...did you

did you sight that

last night

a miraculous mirage

of sounds without bounds:

mishmash, hodgepodge-

jingling, jangling

tingling, tangling

chitchat, ticktack

clink clank, claptrap

riprap, syrupchirrup

hubble-bubble, hocus-pocus

like a symphony of cacophony

a cantata by the dead

all woven into a fine line of the mind

or a colored call

did you hear that?

The Cosmic Music

With your heart’s ear can you clearly hear

The sound from an unknown planet far beyond our galaxy

A few tender grasses whose deafening snoring has awakened a whole new world

Where the souls of our relatives are traveling all in a hurry

As if to attend a spring gathering?

The Way Forward

Tick, ticktack, ticktock

A cloudy sound persists around

Looming lonely in the lightless park

Waiting, wandering or hesitating

As so many of us have ceased

Groping our ways out of dark

Hey, no more path appears ahead

Someone kindly reminds the blind man

Thanks, but your warning is really off the mark

Tick, ticktack, ticktock

His seeing rod rhyming with the unseen clock

Behind his faded footsteps follows a fresh path

Chanson of a Chinaman*

ching chong, coolie

chink, shina, chonky

so was i called a dragon of barbarity

a born rogue holding laws of truth in deformity

because i ate rats, dogs, slugs and snakes

i began with anything but genes of true humanity

ching chong, coolie

chink, shina, chonky

so am i made a dead enemy of civility

a growing grotesque against the white reality

because i hate freedom as much as human rights

though i have the right to remain a human entity

ching chong, coolie

chink, shina, chonky

so will i be seen a species of non-conformity

a satan inflated beyond the borders of christianity

as long as i’m pig-eyed, crow-haired, the farthest other

i must be treated as a real demon only

* A parody on ‘A Chanson for Canton,’ published in Punch (London: April 10, 1858), which offers a telling historical example illustrative of the deeply-rooted and long-held western tendency to demonize China as the farthest Other.
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

Lexical Tourism

(after Bill Holm’s ‘The Icelandic Language’)

You do not speak that language

Neither have you been to their country

But within the territory of our English vocabulary

You can easily find who they are:

They enjoy playing mahjong in a casino

They are afraid of typhoon

They kowtow to show their respect

They fight with kungfu skills

They believe in fengshui

And now they have their own taikongnauts

From these lexical spots

Can you clearly sightsee how they live?

Media Warning

you have the right to remain silent

any sound you make here in public

can and will later or sooner be used

against you in a court of rule

even if it is nothing but a cough

a sneeze, a hiccup, or a fart

they are either clichés or noises

you also have the right to talk nonsense

any utterance you make in private

can and will be translated against you

according to the dictionary of democracy

your facial expression, your gesture

you body movement or your posture

may prove far from politically correct

you sure have the right to remain silent

unless your whole being is a word per se

Provincial Proverbs

An onion a day keeps the salesperson away

A grin a minute keeps the oak in spirit

A lie an hour keeps the chief in power

A wind a night keeps the mind light

A poem a week keeps the heart freak

A payroll a month keeps poverty at arm’s length

A trip a season keeps the dog in reason

A boss a year keeps the worker dear

A wedding a decade keeps the couple off headache

A big bang a century keeps the human world friendly

Sexual Slogans

A steak a day keeps the court away

A touch a minute keeps the body in spirit

A lie an hour keeps the chief in power

An injection a night keeps the mind light

A dinner a week keeps the heart freak

A honeymoon a month keeps the government at arm’s length

A trip a season keeps the dog in reason

A chef a year keeps the house dear

A wedding a decade keeps the couple off headache

The Black Bird

so little triggers

off

a black bird

the spot of synthesis

foiled with snow

light

to fly into the thick dictionary of

gray

Awaiting

There is a long wait of the passengers

For the detouring and delayed bus

And the wait of the wintry grasses

The wait of the legendary lion king

Before it preys upon a real baby zebra

And the wait of the summer sun deep in the nightmare

The wait of the orchid on the window ledge

The wait of the diamond in an unknown mine

And the wait where you stop and watch

And there is a wait of this darkness

Which you are going to compress into words

A wait that is to spread out thin on the blank paper

Unlike winter stars holding their light in light-years

The wait after you finish writing

And the longer wait then

Reading behind the Words

Behind the words is there no meaning squatting

Except a bold row of cheerful cherry trees

Standing tall in front of my half-fenced house

That bloom for two weeks in a year only

Between spring and summer

Behind the words is there no emotion hidden

But a pair of little unsung yellow birds

Popping up from nowhere

One has flown far away from home

The other still learning to fly close to the nest

Behind the words is there no metaphor explored

But a black and white photo of my parents

Who are hospitalized alternately in China

For the imbalance between yin and yang

A disease both blood-related

English Irrationalities: Outlining a Formal Essay

Introduction:

There might be love in between gloves

But no egg in eggplant, or ham in hamburger

Body:

(1) 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;

(2) 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

(3) Teachers may be taught, but preacher 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

Conclusion:

If vegetarians eat vegetables

What would some humanitarians do to humans?

Politics vs Poetics

in a busy simile-like street

with masks of synecdoche and metonymy

so many metaphors are dancing wildly

that no oxymoron can elbow his way

through crowds of symbols and hyperboles

to his long lost friend paradox

trying to converse with a shy-looking allusion

after standing too long on tiptoes

between consonance and assonance

i become an internally-rhymed road plate

pointing towards the shiny euphony

with no onomatopoeia painted on my face

hardly visible beside the fast lane

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?

English Kanata

Living in the buttes and parklands

With the chutes running through the muskeg

Where Douglas fir and Sitka spruce dwarf

Manitoba maple and tamarack

Among kinnikinnick, saskatoon and soapallallie

We keep fool hens, siwash ducks

Turkey vultures and whiskey jacks

But not really caribous, pecans

Siffleurs or Massassauga rattlers

We eat cisco, inconnu, kokanee, ouananiche

Or oollichan together with timbits

Under the guidance of a bush pilot

Along the blue line

We sometimes ride a chuck wagon

On a grid or asphalt road

When we have a tea party on our veranda

We always prefer to sit on a chesterfield

We have coined tons of loonies and toonies

To pay our premiers and suitcase farmers alike

It matters not if we dwell in a flat or apartment

If we play with a pack or deck of cards

Not even if we take a holiday or vacation

But we do care about how our MLAs

Face off with one another

Even over a puck

At the Eagle Pass

like a shepherd driving his sheep to the pen

the wind keeps blowing wisps of mists

nature’s indistinct trains of thoughts

into the murmuring mouth of the valley

where they gather to make a simple sentence

with the mountain peak as the subject

the river as the predicate and

all the trees as its modifiers

unspeakable

Open Opera

april

this solo performance

of sweet cherry trees

white clusters of vowels

pink chorus of assonance

there is no accompany

of leafy consonance

except bold internal rhymes

between heartbeats and footsteps

Behind a Ballad

to bring this single word

into the mind, the cherry flower has prepared to bloom

for the whole spring

to bring this single line

onto the paper, the thunder has rolled

through the entire summer sky

to bring this single stanza

onto the mouth, the west wind has blown

over all the golden fields

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

Across the Vast Open Range

as if to demonstrate

his roping talents

the cowpuncher looses up his lasso

and throws it afar and straight

dropping it right over

nouns like grizzly bears

verbs like coyotes

adjectives like eagles

adverbs like rattlesnakes

and other function words

like buzzards

before the snowstorm sweeps all

the creatures from the prairies

Interpreting a Poem

shake the film

with all your pleasant leisure

in the clean and crystal water

of your imagination

just wait in your dark room

until the pictures loom

or hold the kaleidoscope straight

against the sunshine in your mind

and keep rolling it slowly

you will see varied views of beauty

but do not hit it too hard

with the hammer of your will

for the shell and meat

would be crushed together

The Making of a Best Poem

A: a worthy arrangement of worthless words

B: a public print-out of private puzzles

C: a rational repetition of random ravings

A: mailed from a good address, better school-associated

B: including a good bionote, better award-winning

C: signed with a good name, better recognizable

A: received by a well-circulated magazine

B: read by a well-connected editor

C: recommended by a well-established publisher

A: the magazine is in the right need

B: the editor is in the right mood

C: the publisher is of the right kind

A: published in the perfect year

B: included in the perfect section

C: presented on the perfect page

A: selected by a poetry lord, somehow intrigued

B: voted by an expert reader, somehow over-reading

C: chosen by a guest editor, somehow idiosyncratic

Poetry Penning

(for Charles Bukowski)

Poetry penning has to be the saddest damned business to do today:

You melt the letters with the best ingredients you have

Your boldest blood, your tenderest tears and your saltiest sweat

Every piece uniquely heart-made

Packaged with the purest silk of your soul

And priced far below the cost of the little fire in your body

But you can sell it for not a single cent

Indeed, only a few tribesmen and tribeswomen caring most about this archaic trade

Might come and take a casual look

When it is marked ‘free’

Like some utensils in a used box put on the road side

Oh yeah, with more wordsmiths than wardwares

More wardwares than hawkers

More hawkers than patrons

How can you expect the miracle of a market niche

For this sad damned business

As more and more patrons turn to raps, heavy metal music

Soaps, chat rooms, computer games, virtual sex

Hot dogs, chilled beers, pot or marijuana

That can entertain every nerve ending

The human body may or may not have besides the mind

So, if you must pen something

You’d best try a story, a screenplay, a slogan or even a spam

What I say is, pen pal

You may well pen anything

But for Christ’s sake

Not this crap

This Is a Line

(for Liu Yu and other mothers)

A line this is for my mother’s birthday

A birth line for my mother’s day

A mother for the birthday of a line

A celebration of my mother’s line of birth

Mother, I will line your birth with celebration

I will day a line with birth celebration, Mother

I will mother a day line with celebration

I will celebrate the mothering of a line

Mother, I will celebrate a line’s birthday

Mother my celebration of a line’s day

Mother my day’s line for a birthday

Celebrate my line with my mother’s birth

Celebrate the day with my mother’s line

Mother, I celebrate your birthday with a line

The White Goose

(For Yuan Hongqi and other fathers)

My grandfather was younger than my son

When he died of an undiagnosed disease

Somewhere in the Mid-South of China

So we have been told since childhood:

He did nothing memorable or forgettable

Left no picture of his or any handwriting

Not even one impression on my father’s senses

Since he was born after he passed away)

But he had bought a big white goose

To protect his infant son in his place

And a single-syllabled family name

Copyrighting every little poem

I have composed

In a foreign tongue

East Idioms (1)

All the animals of the jungle

Flee in fright from the little fox

As it carefully stalks behind

In the tiger’s shadow

A dog begins to bark at the sight

Of a shadow that seems shivering

Then all the dogs in the neighborhood

Jumped into a chorus like crazy

It is the magistrate that indulges himself

In random arson in broad daylight

But prohibits local residents from lighting a lamp

Even in the heart of the night

The oak tree longs to stand still

Or sit in deep meditation

Yet the wind would never stop

Trying to uproot or remove it

East Idioms (2)

the moment a bold pupil is dotted

inside each of its handsome eyes

the painted dragon jumps alive

and flies high above the sky

when the lofty fir begins to dwarf

all other trees in the same forest

it will be knocked down flat

by the first storm at night

deeply buried under the dirty silt

the lotus root is pure and clean inside

you break it into pieces widely apart

yet they still remain connected by the silk

three days after the nightingale flew away

its calls are still circling around every tree

with its songs squatting at each leaf tip

like a dewdrop refusing to fall onto the ground

on the bare ground, with a broken twig

she drew a picture of the serpent

as lively as her own tongue

except for some feet added, though pretty

East Idioms (cont. 3)

In Handan/

In their fondest hope to walk as gracefully as handsomely as the residents of Handan

People swarm in from every part of the country to learn and practice the ‘capital steps’

But many have failed to learn the new steps while others forgot their old ways

So they all have to crawl back on their fours to where they originally came from

Bell Stealing/

To prevent the sound from being heard

As he tries to steal the only bell in the village

The thief stops his own ears with thick cotton

Believing that no one would find him out

Loss of the horse/

On a snowy evening a poor old frontier tribesman

Lost his horse, the only means of living he had

While everybody still felt sorry for him a week later

The horse returned home with another one wild

East Idioms (4)

Mr Ye/

Instead of God, Money, Computer, Sex or Art, he believes in Dragon only

He loves the legendary animal so much so that he paints it on every surface he can find

Deeply moved by his devoted passion, a real dragon comes down to visit him

But no sooner has he seen its face than he jumps to flee, with his pants all wet with fright

Ms Dongsi/

Every time she walks in public, she tries hard to press her belly and frown her brows

Exactly in the same way as does Xisi the most beautiful woman in the whole country

For her, this is the trendiest thing to do to win herself some lovers or admirers

For Xisi, this is a gesture she cannot help making while suffering from a physical pain

Mr Fool/

To remove the two big mountains blocking the way to or from his home

The old man uses a spade to dig away the dirt and gravel day by day

Isn’t it much simpler just to relocate you own family house, says Mr Smart

But so long as we persist, the mountains will be gone some day, he replies

East Idioms (5)

1/ at a waterfront pavilion you can readily

fetch the moon in its clearest reflection

just like the plants facing towards the south

always the first to feel the breath of spring

2/ only by living close to lakes or rivers

can we make friends with fish and shrimps

those living far away from hills or mountains

can never hear the original songs of birds

3/ thanks to the trees our ancestors

planted long time ago, we can now

enjoy all the coolness of their shades

under a scorching summer sun

4/ just before the sun rises

he pulls up every seedling

a little bit higher in his field

so as to have a harvest sooner

East Idioms (6)

The Daoist Alchemist

Instead of turning brass into gold or sand into diamonds, the alchemist refines soil, air and sunlight into an immortality syrup. While gulping down the newly made elixir in a hurry, he accidentally spills a few drops of the holy dew onto the ground, which his dogs, cats and chickens struggle hard to lip at the first sight. As the alchemist launches himself for a higher life in heaven, all the animals in his humble house thus begin to rise, certainly underneath him.

The Guizhou Donkey

The first of its kind that had ever appeared in the mountains of Guizhou, the donkey gave a deep impression to all local animals at the beginning. Terror-stricken, even the tiger came to pay his respect and offer his kingship to the newcomer, since he had such an imposing statue as well as such a high-pitched voice. Later, the tiger found the donkey capable of doing nothing other than kicking to defend himself or offend his enemy. With this happy realization, the tiger tore the new king into pieces and ate him up the third time he passed by.

East Idioms (7)

1/ Once he gets a full taste of the idea

He forgets the words that contain it

Just as the angler forgets his fishing rod

After he gets the carp off his little hook

2/ He enjoys playing

His harp to the cows

Because only they can

Appreciate his artistry

3/ The moment he hears of Zong’s death

He throws his zither into a big fire

Knowing no one else would ever

Be able to understand his music

4/ Far to the west and long time ago

Did the crane fly away from the wall

Here it was once boldly painted

Here its shadow is still fluttering now

East Idioms (8)

1/ So long as the green mountain is still out there

There is no worrying about want of firewood

2/ The itch is worse when scratched from outside the shoe

The flower would be fairer if looked at from behind the fog

3/ The oak desires to remain still

But the wind must keep blowing

4/ Rather to be a jade broken to pieces

Than to be a tile unharmed as a whole

5/ The Sichuan dog barks at the rising sun

As it seldom appears in this rainy season

6/ The mantis tries to catch the cicada in the front

While a shadowy oriole is stalking it close behind

7/ The couple sleeps closely on one and the same bed

Their dreams are as widely different as day and night

Prosperous Tomorrow Programmed

00000000000000

0 0

01111111111111

0 0

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1 1

100000000000000000000000001

1 1

111111111111111111111111111

1 1

0000000000000

0 0

111111111111 0 0

1 1 0 0

1 1 0111111111110

100000000001 0 0

1 1 0 0

111111111111 0000000000000

0 0

Earthling Calling

we love; therefore, we are…

.--/.

.-../---/...-/.

-/..././.-././..-./---/.-./.

.--/.

.-/.-./.

.--/.

.-/.-./.

-/...././.-././..-./---/.-./.

.--/.

.-../---/...-/.

I C Q

Y c q?

-- I o u

I o u 1

I, 4 1, o u

2 b / 2c

2 b 1

2 c 1

4 1, u r 1

I c q

In the Lakeheart

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

rainbow trout

troutroutroutroutroutrout

waterweeds

e s

r d

w e

e e

e w

d r

s e

sediments

consciousness

memories

Swirling Swastika: a Chan (or Zen) Poem

FAMEFAM EM M

E O

D N

I E

SMEDITATINGMEDITATIY

E T

X A

S T

E I

X NPOWERPOW

The Niagara Falls: A Psycho-Snapshot

ALL THE STARS, CLOUDS AND THUNDERS

FROM THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WWWWWWWWWWWWW

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

GGGGGGGGGGGGG

suddenly and simultaneously into the same

.............................??????...

!!!!!!!!!!!!.........!!.................!!!

Above the Skyline

gOd h

man S t a rs

moons

moonsa

g come t s

drea ms n

a cl o u ds

ki tes I

o bir d s

smoky n mists

buiLdingsBuildingsbUildings

Eyeglasses

WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU WERE BORN WITH A WEAK VISION

w yhavetowearapairofglassesy b

I o o e

T u u t

H c c t

O a a e

U n n r

Tcanyouseewhatyoul ookatorlookatwhatyoucanc

Keatsian Variation

Heard melodies__________________

Are sweet those

Unheard are________

Sweeter _________________

songs sung_______________

Are fragrant ______________

Those unsung_____

Are even _____________

Fragrant________________________

Home: A Logo Poem

USE G.love

The Triumph of the Eight Trigrams

The creative: yangyangyangyangyangyangyangyang

yangyangyangyangyangyangyangyang

the clinging: yangyangyangyangyangyangyangyang

yinyinyinyin yinyinyinyin

yangyangyangyangyangyangyangyang

the dragon: yinyinyinyin yinyinyinyin

yangyangyangyangyangyangyangyang

yinyinyinyin yinyinyinyin

The receptive: yinyinyinyin yinyinyinyin

yinyinyinyin yinyinyinyin

In Times like This

No good news is news.

News, news is no good.

Is no news good news?

Good news is no news.

News is no good news.

Personal Politics

Myself

The present writing subject

The Chinaman called ‘CY’

The clone of my entire being inside out

The living creature sin-numbered as 646095813

The biofather of George and Allen

The author of this sensible nonsense

A statistic, waiting to be

Posthumously digitalized

And what else?

The Fat Fabulous

easy-going, they

gab; they

grin; they

giggle; they

guffaw; they

gossip; they

gyrate; they

goof off; they

galumph; gooey

On the Road

Road closed

Construction ahead

Expect delay

Detour

Construction ahead

Expect delay

Detour

Road closed

Expect delay

Detour

Road closed

Construction ahead

Detour

Road closed

Construction ahead

Expect delay

In the Prairies

There are

No pens

No fence

No railings

No windbreaks

No walls

And no boundaries

Except whirlwinds

Blowing wildly

Across the territory

As another little grass

Tries breaking the earth

Like a new syllable

Sprouting at the tongue tip

Cat’s Cradle

in my heart is hidden

a rambling sentence

strictly syntaxed

with too many stressed syllables

but without any semantic focus

so I’ve trimmed it into a loveline

not too long or too thick

yet strong enough for you

to play cat’s cradle

with your idioms

Beside the Ball of Limbo

Your themes are plein-air

endless

entwined and

encircled

Sharpen my pen, Muse

with wit and will

so that

i can

clear-cut

this non-tangible tangle

of sad and stubborn

words

Allen in Wonderland

Qucheng

Homerburgh

Dantefield

Shakespeareston

Goethestadt

Pushkingrad

Baudelaireville

Nerudastad

Frostdale

Tagorerboro

Will

Wit

With

Withe

Wither

Withers

Wither

Withe

With

Wit?

Incomplete Imperatives

While the sun is sleeping

While the hope is being prolonged

While the winter is not really arriving yet

While the egg remains hatched

While the vapor stays in the air

While the grass grows

While the fish swims in the water

While the house stands firm

While the cherry tree blossoms

While the iron is still hot

Harmony of Homonyms

Assent of ads adds to the ascent

Blue buses blew busses

Chaste councils chased counsels

Dyed days died in daze

Earls elicit illicit URLs

Fazed fays faze phased

Guys in guise graphed to graft

Hairy Harry heals heels

Idols idle in idyle

Jugglers jammed in jambed jugulars

Knights knock at the nocks of nights

Leased lyers are least liars

Mind mined in mist missed

Nice gneiss on nickers’ knickers

Overdo once one’s overdue

Past profits passed prophets

Quays quoined with coined cays

Ryes rise with rows of rose

Sighted symbols are symbols cited

Tales about trust are tails trussed

Urns earned have no use for ewes

Violed verse versus vale vialed in veil

Weeks whiled are wild weaks

Xi sighs with psi in size

Yoke your yore in yolk

Zealous Zellers zooms in zooms

Word Herding

The words I have captured are wild

You warned me they would fly

But I really wanted to give a try

Taming them into birds nice and mild

Within the edges of this blank page

They long to return to the open wood

But I enclose them with delicate mood

Even if they might die as if in a cage

Just A Quick Note

Sorry

To have

Changed

The lock

Though

I had

Strongly

Wished

There

Would

Never

Such

Need

Voices: Active vs Passive

To say

Everyman loves a woman

Is not to say

A woman is loved by everyman

Grammatical Groundwork

in the overly exploited mine of vocabulary

he digs deep into the ores hard and shiny

at the heavily guarded garden of syntax

he keeps pruning his trees dripping with green

among the wildly running crowds of syllables

he skillfully cowboys his colts cute and lively

Hyper Grammatical Poems (1): Preposition

Exactly like a coordinate system

You locate

Any nominal identity

In time

In space

In logic

yuanspoetry©

Monday, 2 March 2015

Languacultural Poems by Yuan Changming ©

WORDSCAPING

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