Mindscaping
On the muddy bank of your mind
You have been using
Every grain of sand
To build a castle
Or even a whole city
While you could have kept it as is
Where birds stalk and stroll
Leaving their footprints there
Before the river engulfs them again
—Changming Yuan, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Changming Yuan, author of Chansons of a Chinaman (2009) and Politics and Poetics (2009), is a three-time Pushcart nominee who grew up in a remote Chinese village and published several books before moving to Canada. Currently Yuan teaches writing in Vancouver and has had poems appearing in Barrow Street, Best Canadian Poetry, Exqusite Corpse, London Magazine, Verse Wisconsin and more than 300 other literary journals/anthologies worldwide.