Poppies
Each is a pair
Of round lips
Cut right in the middle
Bleeding boldly
Against the autumn wind
Nothing to kiss
Nothing to talk about
Except some tender recollections
Of blood-skirted pasts
Painted thickly
Close to the heart
罂粟花
每朵都是
一对中间割破的
圆唇
在秋风中
淌着鲜血
无以为吻
无人与说
除了些许对穿着血裙的
过去的回忆
浓浓涂抹在
心胸附近
原载台湾《创世纪》2018年第197期
Original poem first published in Epoch Poetry Quarterly, Taiwan
The Painter and the Viewer
between the flying brush tip
and towering mountain top
you attain immortality in the blank spot
while i am lost
among thick patches of ink
观赏者与画家
在灵动飞舞的笔尖
与巍然矗立的高山
之间， 一个在空白处
获得永生，一个在浓墨前
失去自我
Original poem published in Singaporean Chinese Literature
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Yuan Changming grew up in a remote village and started to learn the English alphabet in Shanghai at age nineteen, publishing monographs on translation before leaving China. With a Canadian PhD in English, Yuan currently edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include ten Pushcart nominations, eight chapbooks [most recently East Idioms, the 2018 Naji Naaman’s Literary Prize, and Jodi Stutz Award in Poetry (2020)]. He also has poems in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry and BestNewPoemsOnline, among 1,689 other literary outlets across 45 countries.
