Four Poems
Written by Chinese Poet Yuan Hongri
Translated by Yuanbing Zhang
The King of Giants in Prehistoric Kingdom
When you are not any more fresh fragrant red apple but faithful pure ruby,
you will see the back of time, the incredible kingdom of the sweet light.
the palace of stars in which the soul lives and the golden tree in the garden of heaven.
The ulterior you will be a teenager--the king of giants in prehistoric kingdom.
10.19.2017
那史前之国的巨人之王
当你不再是鲜芳的红苹果而是坚贞纯粹的红宝石
你看到了时间的背面那不可思议的甜蜜之光的王国
灵魂居住的星辰之宫那天国花园的黄金之树
明天的你是一个少年那史前之国的巨人之王
2017.10.19
The Sovereign Gods Are all My Own
I'm not Wukong and I don't want to be Celestial Ruler Supreme God,
but I want to be myself in the beginning.
There was no the heaven and earth at that time and the universe was the paradise of the soul，
in which were full bloom a great many flowers from paradise in the galaxy.
Neither I knew what was the up and down, east and west, nor gentle and simple, both parties.
I was both a teenager and an old man,
the great many numbers of mine had a great many kingdoms, the sovereign gods were all my own.
10.9.2017
那至尊无上的诸神皆是我自己
我不是悟空我不想作天帝而只想作太初的自己
那时没有天与地而宇宙是灵魂的乐园开满巨多星系之仙葩
我不知何为上下东西也不知贵贱彼此而时光是我永恒之河流
我既是一个少年也是一个老者那巨多的我拥有巨多的王国那至尊无上的诸神皆是我自己
2017.10.9
Giant's Poem
The body is just a dress of your soul and the world is a picture of time.
You can't find yourself even you go all over the world,
because the temple of the soul is in a garden beyond time.
Those smiles of the prehistoric giants is in a bright mirror of the quiet spirit
and the interstellar words are giant 's poem.
2017.8.8
巨人的诗章
身体只是灵魂的一件衣裳而人间是时光的一幅画
你走遍世界也找不到自己因为灵魂的圣殿在时光之外的花园
那些史前巨人的笑容在寂静之心灵的明镜之中而星际的词语是巨人的诗章
2017.8.8
The Nest of Time
When the lightning of heaven spark-over the head of the night
and make the earth transparent, like the honey of gold,
The angel's song is like the dance of the swarm
and illuminate the nest of time--the giant labyrinth of stars;
The golden car of dragon and Phoenix will carry the mountains of prehistoric gods
and the giant ship of platinum is suddenly like a outer paradise of the interstellar giants.
7.29.2017
时间之巢
当天国的闪电击穿黑夜的头颅而令大地透明若黄金之蜜
天使的歌声若蜂群之舞而照彻时间之巢巨大的星辰之迷宫
龙凤之金车载来史前诸神之山岳之尊尊而白金巨轮恍若星际之巨人天外之乐园
2017.7.29
Bio: Yuan Hongri (born 1962) is a renowned Chinese mystic, poet, and philosopher. His work has been published in the UK, USA, India, New Zealand, Canada, and Nigeria; his poems have appeared in Poet's Espresso Review, Orbis, Tipton Poetry Journal, Harbinger Asylum, The Stray Branch, Pinyon Review, Taj Mahal Review, Madswirl, Shot Glass Journal, Amethyst Review, The Poetry Village, and other e-zines, anthologies, and journals. His best known works are Platinum City and Golden Giant. His works explore themes of prehistoric and future civilization.
Yuanbing Zhang (b. 1974), is Mr. Yuan Hongri’s assistant and translator. He himself is a Chinese poet and translator, and works in a Middle School, Yanzhou District, Jining City, Shandong Province China.
The History of Portland Oregon Seen Through Blurred Lenses
Pre Doug History up to 1943
Here are a few select happenings before me.
Visitors from the old world arrived from a temporary land bridge from a mythical land which was eventually named Siberia. They were good with boats and had good running through the inland passage formed by islands off what came to be Alaska (native for “really cold”) and British Columbia (named after a colonial power and a reviled guy that had nothing to do with Canada). Experts believe that they were drawn by the many outdoor stores and fly fishing.
European residents learned about what became known as the Specific North West by fur trappers and traders and the Lewis and Clark expedition. Portland got a big boost from the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition used to promote the city. Side note – the Largest Log Building In The World leftover from the Exposition was around long enough for me to tour it before it burned down. Despite Portland’s position at the confluence of two rivers – Columbia and Willamette – its ranking among West Coast cities has been sinking for some time. Seattle and San Francisco gained from gold rushes. Other places have better ports (getting to Portland via the Columbia requires going though the Graveyard of the Pacific), and attracted bigger business.
A few years ago, elderly friends told us they met at Lewis and Clark (meaning the college). I asked if they meant Expedition or Exposition. I hope that their laughter was sincere.
The next big deal for Portland was the shipbuilding during WWII, which leads up to my first turn here.
Doug’s First Portland run 1943 – 1965
Personal – Lived in Northeast Portland in a house built in 1941 which my parents moved into about the time that my sister was born. Went to what was Whitaker Grade School. It survived through a couple of fires and now houses Native American Youth And Family Center. Excruciating biographical information is in “Cities” in my blog.
I barely remember the 1948 Vanport Flood. Vanport was named for Vancouver WA and Portland. It was used to house ship builders during WWII. Whites and Blacks were recruited from all around the country. Oregon has a cruel history in racial relations – no need to recount here. Blacks were redlined into a small area and many had not gotten out when the flood came. Water came up close to the back of Whitaker and Vanport, once the second most populous city in Oregon, was destroyed.
In the late 1940s Portland was a crime and corruption hotspot. The book “Portland Confidential” gives the details. As a young kid, I remember seeing gambling devices out in the open, particularly punch boards. Dorothy McCollough Lee was elected a reform mayor in 1949. Portland didn’t care for reform and she wasn’t re-elected. She taught as a substitute in a political science class I took, but I remember nothing from it.
Throughout those years Portland was a Democrat and union stronghold in a mostly Republican State. It was conservative socially and culturally. Portland was known as the whitest city in America (no longer true I think). It changed some during those years, but racism and Anti-Semitic didn’t disappear. During my Portland State years, the times they were changing. Marijuana, which some thought was just a Black thing, moved into wide use and there was rebellion over Viet-Nam. Queer culture was emerging into prominence.
Like the rest of the country, the suburbs grew because of better schools and better houses. Urban Renewal (Negro removal), hospital and other major construction projects such as the Memorial Coliseum and freeways took away a lot of the housing. Ethnic enclaves were broken up. While Portland the city stayed relatively stable, the suburbs burgeoned and everything merged into a big slurb. Farm towns of ten thousand population grew as big as a hundred thousand.
There were no major league sports in town. There was a Triple A baseball team and college games. As a boy scout I ushered some pre-season NFL games played in Portland.
Portland was characterized as boring white suburbs, which is mostly correct. There was the Black community in North and Northeast Portland. A few Asians lived in Portland, but they were limited by the Japanese being sent to internment camps during WWII and the earlier Chinese Exclusion Act. The near west section of Burnside, which divided the town into north and south, had a version of skid road (if you want to be bored, ask a purist why it isn’t skid row). It had (and has) a mission and flophouses serving the down and out. Famous Tempest Storm was a fixture at the burlesque house.
The out of town years 1965 – 1997.
During those years I was in Eugene Oregon, Manhattan (Kansas that is), Atlanta, Louisville, Denver, Los Angeles and Marin CA. Got married, earned a living, switched occupations, became self-employed house husband.
Over time on trips back I noticed changes. What had been green bean and berry farms between Portland and Gresham were housing developments. The two cities had grown together and annexed the land that had been between them. My old home got swallowed by Portland.
Portland got an NBA franchise, the Trail Blazers, and won a title.
While visiting my mother a house cattycorner to her place burned down. The people who came out looked like representatives of the United Nations. Portland remains majority white, but not as much. The first shopping center in our neighborhood from the early 1950s became Hispanic oriented.
Doug’s Second Portland Run 1997 –
I came back to a place that was the same and yet different. I thought of it as a backwater compared to eighteen years in California, but Portland wasn’t much different than California and deemed to be an “it” city. Compared to major West Coast cities it is less expensive (we bought a condo for half of what we sold our place in California for, but later moved up to a better place than what we left at about the same cost). The comparison may still be valid now that home prices in both places have doubled or so. According to my last check on Zillow our old California place after apparent upgrades, on fill, in an earthquake zone, was valued at 1.3 million.
Some things here are much the same as the rest of the country.
Crime rates went down – but Portland now is setting highs in homicides..
Department stores are failing, particularly downtown ones. We visited the downtown icon Meier & Frank store shortly after returning to town. It was where people ate at the Georgian Room, met under the clock and children went to see Santa in a monorail. You could buy clothes, appliances and furnishings there. Clark Gable sold ties there many years ago. After going through changes, the building is the luxury Nines Hotel. Of two major local stores of my youth J.K. Gill closed shortly after I returned and Olds and King closed before.
Traffic congestion increases. When I moved back I could drive thirteen miles west side to east side to see my mother in eighteen minutes. We laughed at people who talked about traffic here. It was nothing compared to Seattle or California cities. We aren’t laughing anymore.
Beer is something in Portland’s favor. We discovered the McMenamins lodging, restaurants, resorts and drinking empire. When we are at one of their places, we get Terminator Stout, at other places we get Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewery in Bend or a different dark. Portland has competition for Beervana, but it is in the running.
Portland lost baseball and got soccer. For some that is a gain.
We don’t go into Portland much (we are eight miles south of downtown), but we do enjoy the zoo, art museum and the museum of science and industry. The zoo is the most changed, it moved and became much bigger and better. Its main claim to fame is the elephants that recently got a bigger habitat. The museum of science and industry also moved.
The best part of Portland is the access to adjacent Oregon and Washington. The Columbia Gorge and Mt. Hood to the east and the coast to the west are beautiful with hiking, skiing and snow shoeing trails for hundreds of miles. They are available on days without flooding, freezing or burning.
Portland itself is well known for rioting, protesting, crime and thousands of people camping all over the town. Every election someone promises fixes, but nothing changes. The qualification for mayor is to be ideologically correct. That includes, but is not limited to, punishing business and rich people. The Portland council form of government means that people who have the ability to convince people to vote for them get appointed to positions which should require intelligence and professional qualifications as the heads of various bureaus. It is stupid and it shows. As in the rest of Oregon, hiring bad employees and then paying them to go away for fear of being sued is standard practice. Bad cops go to mediation and get little or no penalty, one of the downsides to fealty to public unions. The retirement plan for police and firemen is pay as you, a poor financial practice, particularly given the ease of going on disability and early retirement.
Politics hasn’t ruined the weather in Portland; climate change took care of that. Then – moderate rainfall, temperate summers and winters. In the last year or so, we went 5.5 days without electricity and the neighborhood was scattered with downed trees and branches because of an ice storm, had a heat dome that raised the temperature to 115F where nothing over 107F had previously been recorded, and wind blew one of our fences down. The forest fires give us a lot of toxic air.
On top of Oregon’s 9% income tax rate, Portland adds 1.5 – 3% for “high” earners, and “high” isn’t very high – a good reason to go across the Columbia to Vancouver Washington with no income tax if you make very much money.
With all of the bad, why has Portland attained its exalted status?
Exaggerated woke/progressive image, as opposed to the incompetent, second rate reality.
Cheaper than the other guys, but still expensive.
Things are bad everywhere.
Laid back presentation by the “Portlandia” series.
The country around Portland.
I hope that this discourages anyone from moving here. There are 2.5 million people in the metro area now, up from the much more manageable and pleasant under a million in my youth.
I AM A SNOWMAN
Linda Hibbard
I am a snowman built from winter snow
My eyes are large and round
I like to look around
I like to play with the people
Who built me from the ground
I am a Snowman
Each year a new Snowman stands here,
Wide eyed at the earth
Looking at the people who
Made them from the snow
A new Snowman I am
Standing tall and strong
Watery Winter Sunshine
No! Not that,
I feel!
The climate change, I feel
Standing less round and
Closer to the ground
I yell to the children,
Who built me from the ground
Can I have another day?
Can you save your Earth,
Don’t let us melt away
Nashville Shakespeare
From his tongue he spoke like Waylon
The bard of the Cumberland River
His journey from Macbeth to the Grand Ole Opry
In the Ryman he battered us with sonnets. A long dream.
In the dead of night
He wore the cloak of tragedy
While the Honky Tonk boys erupted in laughter
As he tripped over the cowboy boots scooting on the dancefloor.
Then all the romances in the world,
Within every glittering star in the sky
Violated the Romeo and Juliet pact.
And watched him cough through his fumes of sighs.
All the women he used to fancy
Are chasing the broncos at the rodeo.
Everyone is drunk on whiskey and moonshine
Less on wine and Absinthe with wormwood.
In the mirrors he believed to see the future.
With a skull in his hand feeling axiomatic
An original intellectual filled up with the Viper’s spit.
Surrounded by tornados and outlaws in a sun wrought sky.
There is a banging, clash against the church glass windows
The art painted by the halos of exotic angels
The cholera will hit the streets and the cowardly all say goodnight.
In the buzzing city, the homeless and the golden dances become one.
The light returns in a gleam as the alert hits Broadway
The pounding of hail and glass molding hits like hammers
Playwrights always preferred a bubonic ending.
The Kings were noble and didn’t know the calls to country animals.
Bio: David L O’Nan (he/him) is the founder of Fevers of the Mind Poetry & Art, A writer, editor for nearly 20 years. He has pieces found in Icefloe Press, Anti-Heroin Chic, Ghost City Review, Royal Rose Magazine, Rhythm & Bones Press Lit, Cajun Mutt Press, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Nymphs Publishing, Spillwords among others. His website for publishing older work & others work is found at www.feversofthemind.com He is from the Midwest . Kentucky/Indiana area.
Graciously, writing has been part and parcel of what I do for a living on a daily basis. Beside, song, poem, script, article, blog and story writing have all rekindled as well revived the inner passion and fulfilment associated with such professional skills in this field of creative arts. Well, in life some gifted and talented individuals are blessed to take the lead in climbing the staircase of success, thus literally moving upwards or being step ahead on the ladder of prosperity. But, in our Creator’s strategic ways it all happens in His time and season as far as the earth revolves around the sun.
Surprisingly, in retrospect the man who came to Amanful Digital Library & Learning Arena – ADDLA, where I used to serve as its Librarian and Manager has been forgotten in terms of facial persona recognition or pictorial outlook description. Thus, I can’t really make him out by offering that contact number of Mr. Dennis Agyeman with the pseudonym Dennis Mann can never be erased from the memory absorption of my cerebrum and cerebellum. In fact, Sir DM as I affectionately call him not the virtual DM for ‘Direct Message’ though but this distinguished man of valour Dennis Mann, a professional Banker, Child Educationist and astute Author in Accra, Ghana.
Thankfully, the maiden communication on the other side of the phone with him remains quite memorable, aside I cherish as well embrace it as ‘DC – Divine Connection’ by virtue of the fact that it took me a number of years to come across the diary I wrote his phone contact number. Having spoken with him several times, it always comes with blissful verbal expression and written statement that he’s such a man with optimism to blaze trail to higher heights in both domestic and exotic creative writing arts industry. Better-still ,it is so good to know his maiden published book entitled Mr. Pee Pee being one of the incredibly sought after children literary companions in Ghana, West Africa and other parts around the globe. Remarkably, I hereby break his big news as Berganda Big Announcement – BBA as he’s poised with readiness to launch and release another marvellous book dubbed Berganda.
Kindly, check the following details and take note of the virtual poster respectively. Thanks Berganda Executive Book – BEB Launch Date: 3rd December,2021 #Friday Time: 11 AM Venue: Dreamer’s Hub, Near Wisconsin University College, North Legon, Accra Ghana, West Africa. Host Author: Dennis Mann Guest Speaker: Raphaelle Antwi Anchor/MC: Ike Boat Contact: +233247654113 Or +233557957122
derailed
she was at a train station
with no direction in mind.
the world spun on
behind her,
people talking on business calls,
yelling at kids to “keep up!”
it was his fault she was here,
adrift in a world
where being tethered
to inanimate objects
was key.
she wondered how hard it would be
to dash across the train tracks
and avoid being caught.
it was the type of thought
he would have.
he had been damaged
for a long time.
his childish snowflake edges
now sharpened into knives,
unwittingly ready to cut
anyone who came near.
his flowered heart
once blooming and joyful,
now a ninja star,
incapable of being cradled
by smooth hands.
he had spent many hours
looking at the moon.
or glaring at it.
she didn’t know.
but his silhouette
hunched on the deck
and bathed in white light
was a secret
for only her.
his fingers were always calloused now,
ridges from guitar strings
pressed into them.
permanently.
she secretly hoped
she could hear him in the night.
sorrowful tunes
made by someone who knew
what he was doing
even if he never showed it.
the wrinkles behind his eyes
faded long before she realized
he never smiled anymore.
they were on separate trains
heading in opposite directions
and the most she could do
was press up against the window
and love him
while it lasted.
This New Year we did not have a Christmas tree. Friends were supposed to come to my party. But we couldn’t buy a real Christmas tree a thorny, scent, fluffy beauty. When my mother left for work, I asked her to buy garlands and toys to somehow decorate the rooril.
I have been preparing for the New Year for a long time. My parents knew and allowed me to call my friends. But we were at odds with my best friend – Anvar. And I was not going to put up with him. On the contrary, I wanted to take revenge on him this year. Although, dad always told me: «Do not dig a hole for another — you can fall into it yourself)).
And he warned that Santa does not present gifts to bad children. But I didn’t care, I was very angry with Anvar and did not want to forgive him. In the afternoon we met with a former friend. He started talking first: «Let’s put up, because soon the New Year. All quarrels must be left in the past. Let’s make a snowman together and call it Friendship». I decided not to continue the war and make peace with a friend: «Come to me tomorrow for the New Year party. It will be fun. Only we will not have a Christmas tree – we did not have time to buy it)). When I was saying that to Anvar, I saw my mother walking home and carrying a big beautiful fluffy tree in her hands! I was so staring at her that I even fell. It was such a big cool suprise!
Probably, they say the truth that New Year should be celebrated with friends, in a good mood and without bad thoughts. Then all wishes will come true and the whole year will be good. I had a great New Year party with my best friends and nice family! I am sure that this year will be happy and successful for everyone and for me! Happy New Year to everybody!
