Two poems
Yuan Changming
Body Politics: Left vs Right
1/ Brain
My left brain has everything right
While my right one has nothing left
2/ Heart
My left chamber’s been reserved for someone
Right, yet my right one’s for nobody on the left
3/ Foot
My left foot takes the position for the right
But my right one stands firm against the left
Winter Wait
With their most tender touches, snowflakes
Have painted the whole night white
Including the darkest corner in sight
Even within a forgotten dream
Except the plum tree, standing alone there
Under the eastern sky, whose
Flowers are blooming boldly against
The entire season, more vibrant than blood
Yuan Changming grew up in a remote village, started to learn the English alphabet in Shanghai at age nineteen and published monographs on translation before leaving China. With a Canadian PhD in English, Yuan edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include twelve Pushcart nominations & sixteen chapbooks (most recently SINOSAUR) besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008- 2017) & Best New Poems Online, among 2,019 others across 49 countries. A poetry judge for Canada's 2021 National Magazine Awards, Yuan began to write and publish fiction in 2022. Currently, Yuan is working on his hybrid or cross-cultural novel TOWARDs (a trilogy).