Man, As He Really Is and more

by Changming  Yuan (November 2017) 

The Shadow, Pablo Picasso, 1953

Man, As He Really Is

Is far beyond God’s imagination

Let alone understanding

If you really love Earth, you wouldn’t be

Afraid to show it to the world, let alone her

Most websites don’t even last fourteen

Months, let alone fourteen years

They never thought they’d be able to do

Any serious reading, let alone thinking

Some people can’t help inventing lies

Let alone telling them

The sun shines on you but not on me

Let alone my shadow

I always expect the world to leave me

Alone, let alone my poetry

Close Up   

Trees everywhere

On each road, in every yard

But only far, and farther away

In a virgin forest can you hear

The songs from a tree’s ringed heart

In the shiny shape of a woman

Sitting close to your chest and

Throat, with all the green spirits

Set free from the carved cleft holes

Resonating in a foreign land

 

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Yuan Changming edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include 12 Pushcart nominations for poetry and 2 for fiction besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline and 2019 other literary outlets worldwide. A poetry judge for Canada’s 2021 National Magazine Awards, Yuan began writing and publishing fiction in 2022. 

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