Love Lost & Found: For Qi Hong

1. Missing in Missed Moments

Each time I miss you
++++A bud begins to bloom
++So you are surrounded by flowers
Everywhere you go

Each time I miss you
++++A dot of light pops up
++So you are illuminated by a whole sky
Of stars through the night

2. The Soft Power

What softens
++++++++A human heart is
Neither money nor honey.

Rather, it is a good-natured smile at
Some dog playing with a cat, a bird
Feeding her young with her broken wings,
Covering them against cold rain at noon.
The whispering of a zephyr blowing
From nowhere, the mist flirting fitfully
With the copse at twilight, the flower
Trying to outlive its destiny, as well

As the few words you actually meant
To say to her but somehow forgot
++++++In the tender of last night.

Yuan Changming started to learn the English alphabet in Shanghai at age nineteen and published monographs in translation before leaving China. Currently, Yuan edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include eleven Pushcart nominations and twelve chapbooks (most recently LIMERENCE) besides inclusion in the Best of Best Canadian Poetry & Best New Poems Online, among 1859 writers across 47 countries. Recently, Yuan served on the jury for Canada’s 44th National Magazine Awards (poetry category).

Photo: “Running Toward the Light” by Emanuela Iorga