World Poetry Proudly Presents Changming Yuan & Allen Qing Yuan!

Ariadne’s notes:  The World Poetry Café Radio Show with hosts Ariadne Sawyer and Israel Mota were honoured to present the talented duo of Changming Yuan and Allen Qing Yuan. We thank  Poetry Pacific Press for being our esteemed World Poetry Partner. Chanming says:  “please send your poems to: editors.pp@gmail.com”
LISTEN TO THE RADIO SHOW!

Changming Yuan and Allen Qing Yuan:

Poetry Pacific – poetrypacific.blogspot.ca

Joint poetry blog – http://yuanspoetry.blogspot.ca/

Poetry Pacific Press – http://poetrypacificpress.blogspot.ca/

Poetry Pacific Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/poetry.pacific

Allen Qing Yuan:: Above the Movement

– www.facebook.com/Above.The.Movement
– www.abovethemovement.com

– Twitter: @ATMovement
– Instagram: @abovethemovement

Background music solo cello music by Bach, played by Yo Yo Mah, welcome song by Mary Youngblood(First Nations) and Anthony Blackman   Steel Pan performer, Anthony Blackman, who will be  performing for the birth of the new World Poetry venue in Vancouver February 15th  at the celebration of Black History Month and Love, Britannia Community Centre, Vancouver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Changming Yuan, 7-time Pushcart nominee and author of Chansons of a Chinaman (2009) and Landscaping (2013), grew up in rural China and published several monographs on translation and the English language before moving to Canada as an international student. With a PhD in English from the University of Saskatchewan, Yuan currently tutors independently in Vancouver, where he co-publishes Poetry Pacific with his teenager poet son Allen Qing Yuan and operates PP Press. Most recently interviewed by [PANK], Yuan has had poetry appearing in nearly 800 literary journals/anthologies across 28 countries, which include Asian literary Review, Best Canadian Poetry (2009; 2012), BestNewPoemsOnline, LiNQ, Istanbul Review, London Magazine, Paris/Atlantic, Poetry Kanto, Poetry Salzburg, SAND, Taj Mahal Review, Threepenny Review and Two Thirds North.

Kinship: For Yuan Hongqi

Yes, we are father and son, but so often
Did I doubt this simple small bio fact:
We could never say more than three short
Sentences to each other when we met, nor
Did we meet more than three times per year
Before I managed to flee a thousand miles
Away from you, and later ten thousand away
From your village on this world’s other side

Like other Chinese fathers, you never said
You loved me, gave me a hug, or touched me
Unless it was a cutting pinch in the arm
Or a heavy hit on the butt, (always in surprise)
While my peers kept bragging aloud
About their great fathers, grandfathers
I looked down upon you, not because of
Your slight stature, but because of your
Smaller personality, constantly calling you
“A Buddha outside, a Devil at home”
(Of course behind your back), so I used to
Feel guilty, fearing I could never shed
Any teardrops when you die, just as every
True Confucian son is supposed to

Unlike me and my son, with a big store of
Co-memories ready to share, to cherish
We were born enemies, karma-determined
In our former lives, just as you had explained
To my mother, (who would be busy filling
In each new crack on our wall, with a big pail
Of muddy mixture every time we met)

Yet ever since your death at the dawn of 2012
I have been haunted by your image, kindly
Smiling, and even sobbed my heart out
While dreaming last night: are you there, Dad?

Changming Yuan (C)

[First published in and nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Prize by Mobius: The Poetry Magazine]

 

親情︰寫給袁宏啟

沒錯，你我確系父子，不過我常常

懷疑這一簡單的生物學事實︰

每次相聚，我們難能說完三句短話

而一年到頭我們見面也不過三次

那還是我在世界的另一邊

逃避你千里萬里之前

 

像其他中國父親，你從未說過

你愛我，擁抱過觸摸過我

除非是深掐臂膀

或痛打屁股，（總是冷不及防）

當我的同伴大聲吹噓

他們的爸爸爺爺如何了得，我卻

瞧不起你，不是因為

你身量矮小，而是因為

你性格怯弱。我時時（在你背後）說你

‘在外是活菩薩，在家是活閻王’

因為這，我深深內疚，唯恐不能像個

 

真正的儒家孝子在你離世時為你落淚

不像我和我的兒子，總有許多共同往事

分享回憶，我你乃天生對頭

前世注定，一如你向我母親訴說的

那樣。（每當我倆相見

她總是擰著個大桶， 隨時在你我之間的

高牆上填縫補隙）

 

可是，自從2012年年初你撒手人寰

你的形象一直追纏著我，慈愛的

微笑，每每使我泣不成聲

昨夜還夢見︰你在麼，爸？*

 

Allen Qing Yuan, a Pushcart nominee and author of Traffic Light (2013), currently attends UBC and co-publishes Poetry Pacific with his father-mentor Changming Yuan in Vancouver. Aged 18, Allen has had poetry appearing in more than 70 literary publications across 16 countries, including Cordite Poetry Review, Istanbul Literary Review, Literary Review of Canada, Mobius, Paris/Atlantic, Oklahoma Review, Poetry Kanto, Poetry Scotland, Shampoo, Spillway, Taj Mahal Review and Two Thirds North.

Ariadne’s Note: I have chosen this poem from several excellent poems by Allen because it illustrates the situation of many Intercultural youth working to bring their original culture and the Canadian culture together.

Banana* Blues*

I’m bluer than blue
A branch thicker than the root
A banana unlike any other fruit

But my growth has been severed and burned

Like a scale with weight it cannot measure
The music of my white soul
Is melancholy, oppressed
Singing without words
Confined within black bars

I’m bluer than blue
A composer without compositions
A conductor without a baton
To even guide himself

The song beats away as
I’m singing my blues

Allen Qing Yuan, (C)

Note from Allen: American/Canadian-Born-Chinese (ABCs or CBCs) are often called  “bananas” because they are yellow-skinned, but white-minded.