Poem – Homelanding (By Yuan Changming)

Homelanding

 

Having nothing better to do, I kill

Time by looking at a traditional

Chinese painting on my iPad

 

Much enlarged, it appears like

A plain sheet of rice paper

Smeared with ink. I view it

 

In the presence of bonsai; I

Drop several thick strokes to the floor

Of history, leaving a few fine lines

 

Behind the sofa, & failing

To catch a colorless corner

Between black and white

 

It is a landscape newly relocated

Into my heart’s backyard. Then I sit

On my legs, meditating about

 

No light in the picture, no

Shadow of anything, no perspective

As in hell. Isn’t this the art of seeing?

 

Author Bio: Yuan Changming

Yuan Changming published monographs on translation before leaving his native country. Currently, Yuan edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include ten Pushcart nominations, eight chapbooks & publications in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17) & BestNewPoemsOnline, among 1,609 others across 43 countries.