Yuan Changming
The poem was first published in The Aleph Review, Vol. 4 (2020).
Gracefully, her left ring finger flaps
Its unseen wings against a guqing string
There at the deep heart of a bamboo
Forest
& here in the English Bay
A tiny fish jumps out of the farthest
Boundary of the northern gyroscope, &
God knows how many days
Will pass before a tsunami roars
In Southeast Asia
Or a political tornado
Sweeps across Northern America
Yuan Changming grew up in a remote village, started to learn the English alphabet in Shanghai at age 19 and published monographs on translation before leaving China. With a Canadian PhD in English, Yuan currently lives in Vancouver, where he edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan.
His credits include twelve Pushcart nominations, thirteen chapbooks and publications in literary publications across 43 countries.
About the featured artist: Aakif Suri completed his Bachelor’s degree in fine arts (miniature painting) in 2007 and Master’s in visual arts in 2017 from the National College of Arts, Lahore. He received a Charles Wallace Trust fellowship in 2018 to study at the The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, London. He has exhibited his work at both the Lahore Biennale and the Karachi Biennale, as well as the Basel Art Fair, Melbourne Art Fair and Slick Art Fair, Paris. He has participated in group shows in UK, Canada, Switzerland, India and Muscat. Akif lives and works in Lahore, where he is currently teaching Indo-Persian miniature painting at the NCA.
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