Homelanding

by Yuan Changming

06/04/2020 | poetry | 1 minute read

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?

---

about Yuan (he/him/his)

Yuan Changming works as a produce clerk, and 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 1669 others across 44 countries.