{"id":7383,"date":"2014-10-13T09:39:46","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T13:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/home\/?p=7383"},"modified":"2014-10-17T11:47:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T15:47:51","slug":"four-frogs-walking-at-dusk-and-other-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/four-frogs-walking-at-dusk-and-other-poems\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Frogs, Walking at Dusk and Other Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UP<\/a><\/p>\n

Four Frogs<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the past half century, I have never seen
\nA single frog in this city, not even in the whole country
\nBut there are four big-mouthed frogs leaping around
\nAfar in a rice field of my native village, four frogs
\nSquatting under the rotten bridge on the way leading
\nTo an unknown town, four frogs playing on a big
\nLotus leaf in my heart, four frogs calling constantly
\nFrom the dark pages of history invisible at midnight
\nFour frogs meditating under a puti tree transplanted
\nIn a nature park, four frogs swimming into a fish net
\nLike bloated tadpoles, the same four frogs whose
\nMonotone songs resonate aloud in different tongues
\nWith different pitches, yes, the four frogs still there<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Walking at Dusk<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each time I take a stroll after supper
\nI am haunted by the idea why night falls down
\nFar thicker and faster
\nOn my neighborhood than elsewhere<\/p>\n

In particular, I often see the fanciest house trembling
\nLike a tortured monster, as darkness shot
\nOut of its chimney, greenish blood gushing out
\nFrom its pipes, giant shapes charging
\nTowards the windows like bloated moths, smelling
\nOf fresh human corpses, myriads of muted voices
\nScreaming so hard as to thrust open the entire roof<\/p>\n

Every time I would keep myself farther away from the
\nResidence, in case it might drag me into the black fire
\nThat backfires from inside. The house belongs to
\nA new governor, just elected, a passer-by once told me<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Marpole, on Another Rainy Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

Water splashing against walls
\nAnd windows with each car
\nPassing by, colored umbrellas moving
\nAbove unidentifiable human legs
\nRed light blinking towards the storm and
\nWhite noise, every cherry tree skeleton
\nTrying hard to find a shelter, a long-necked man
\nHopping around with yesterday\u2019s
\nVancouver Sun on top of his bald head
\nAn oversized truck full of
\nThick cement pipes making a large turn
\nAs a bus is waiting for strangers
\nTo get off or on<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oxymoron<\/strong><\/p>\n

it is a faith unfaithful that keeps you
\nfalsely true to yourself, like
\nyinyang seen through with
\nmournful wisdom, at the very moment of
\nviolent relaxation, while the
\nguest host stands
\nalone in a crowd, presenting herself in
\ndark night, among the
\nsounds of silence, to give a speech about this
\nsweet agony as a necessary process in
\nvirtual reality: yes, we all
\nagree to disagree that
\nwe love humanity, but loathe persons; isn\u2019t that
\nAmerican culture?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Self-Portraying:<\/strong> One Word Can Be Worth Even More Than 10,000
\nPictures Although Many People Would Allege the Opposite Is True<\/p>\n

In-Lightened<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Changming Yuan, an 8-time Pushcart nominee, grew up in a remote village, began to learn English at 19, and published several monographs before leaving China. With a PhD in English, Yuan currently tutors and co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver. Since mid-2005, Yuan\u2019s poetry has appeared in nearly 900 literary publications across 30 countries, which include Barrow Street<\/em>, Best Canadian Poetry<\/em>, BestNewPoemsOnline<\/em> and Threepenny Review<\/em>. You can find more of her poetry, among other authors’, on her literary e-zine here<\/a>. Additionally, you can read her personal blog and more of her poetry here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past half century, I have never seen
\nA single frog in this city, not even in the whole country
\nBut there are four big-mouthed frogs leaping around
\nAfar in a rice field of my native village<\/p>\n

READ MORE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":8111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,219,199,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7383"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/219"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7383"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8153,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7383\/revisions\/8153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}