Thursday 14 January 2016

9th Time Nominated for Pushcart:changming

as i was browsing randomly around lunchtime, i happened to notice that one of my 'y' poems originally published in cincinnati review has been nominated for the 2015 pushcart prize by the magazine ('notes for a new year': http://www.cincinnatireview.com/blog/). since 26 feb 2014, this is the first time to win such nomination, and by a nationally influential magazine! although i have been nominated 9 times thus far for the prize, i do not think i would be lucky enough to win the actual prize. no matter what, i enjoy what i am doing.

among the 10 'y' titled poems which have all been published online or in print, two have won me pushcart nominations, two have been featured by two internationally well-known magazines, and one included in best canadian poetry (2014). here are my pushcart nomination records::

Pushcart Nominations: 

1. "Chansons of a Chinaman," nominated by my first poetry book publisher Leaf Garden Press for a Pushcart Prize for 2009. [link::http://leafgardenpress.blogspot.com/].
2. "S. E. W. N," nominated by Blue Fifth Review for a Pushcart Prize for 2009. [http://samofthetenthousandthings.blogspot.com/2009/11/bfrs-pushcart-nominations.html]. Also, originally published by BFR, my poem "Last Single Sale" was selected for inclusion in Best New Poems Online;
3. "Word Collage: A Democratic Poem," nominated by Carcinogenic Poetry (Virgogray Press) for a Puschcart prize for 2010. [link:: http://virgograypress.com/2010/11/25/2010-virgogray-press-pushcart-prize-nominees/];
4. "SAWS: A Seasonal Poem," nominated by Wilderness House Literary Review for a Pushcart prize for 2011. [link::http://www.fictionaut.com/forums/general/threads/1448];
5. "Kinship: for Yuan Hongqi." nominated by Mobius, the Poetry Magazine for a Pushcart Prize for 2012 [link:: http://www.mobiuspoetry.com/prizeawards.htm];
6. “Red,” nominated by Yellow Medicine Review [http://www.yellowmedicinereview.com/] for a Pushcart Prize for 2013;
7. "Y," nominated by Sleet Magazine for a Pushcart Prize for 2013 [link:: http://www.sleetmagazine.com/selected/yuan_v5n1.html#Title1];
8. "Natural Confrontations," nominated by The Binnacles for a Pushcart Prize for 2013 [link:: http://machias.edu/binnacle];
9. “Y,” nominated by Cincinnati Review for a Pushcart Prize for 2015 [link: “Notes for a New Year: http://www.cincinnatireview.com/blog/];

recently i have drafted another 'y' titled poem, a concrete one this time, but i have not been able to finalize it. i believe it will also be quite well accepted when i begin to submit next time around. 

another note: again, i have won "the 2015 extraordinary writing poem award" from cyprus-based  the sons of camus writers international journal. the poem is titled: american/modernization. several years ago, my china-themed serial poem "chinese legends modernized' won me "2012 extraordianary writing poem award" from the same magazine -- my deep gratitude goes to the journal's editor Ann J. Davidson for her appreciation and selection.
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here are my 'y'-titled poems...

Y as in Yellow Comedy

Using my yellow tail
I yellow-swam
From the Yellow River
As a yeast of the yellow peril
Against the yellow alert
In yellow journalism 

With a yellow hammer
And a yellow sheet
I yielded to the yellow metal
At a yellow spot
¼ million yards away from Yellowknife 

People call me yellow jack
Some hailed me as a yellow dog
When I yelped on my yellow legs
To flee from the yellow flu 

Speaking Yerkish* like a yellow warbler
I have composed many yellow pages
For a yeasty yellow book
To be published by the yellow press 

Don’t panic, I yell low. 



You love ‘Y’, not because it’s the first letter
In your family name, but because it’s like
A horn, which the water buffalo in your
Native village uses to fight against injustice
Or, because it’s like a twig, where a crow
Can come down to perch, a cicada can sing
Towards the setting sun as loud as it wants to
More important, in Egyptian hieroglyphics
It stands for a real reed, something you can
Bend into a whistle or flute; in pronouncing it
You can get all the answers you need, besides
You can make it into a heart-felt catapult
And shoot at a snakehead or sparrow, as long
As it is within the range of your boyhood


[y!]

You are really haunted by this letter
Yes, since it contains all the secrets of
Your selfhood: your name begins with it
You carry y-chromosome; you wear
Y-pants; both your skin and heart are
Yellowish; your best poem is titled
Y; you seldom seek the balance between
Yin and yang; you never want to be a
Yankee, but you yearn to remain as
Young as your poet son; in particular
You love the way it is pronounced, so
Youthfully, as a word rather than a letter to
Yell out the human reasons; above all
Your soul is a seed blown from afar, always
Y-shaped when breaking the earth to greet spring


Y

yes, yes, with your
yellowish skin, you enjoy
meditating within the shape of
a wishbone, inside the broken wing
of an oriental bird strayed, or
in a larger sense, you look like
the surfacing tail of a pacific whale
who yells low, but whose voice reaches afar
far beyond a whole continent, to a remote village
near the yellow river, where you used to sunbathe
rice stems, reed leaves, cotton skeletons
with a fork made of a single horn-shaped twig
when you were a barefooted country boy
on the other side of this new world

is this the reason for your obsession
with the letter?
 

[y] 

yum-yum, you seem to
have become addicted
to this alphabet, nothing
but a plain letter, though
it may sometimes get you high
high with your skin-colour
as yellowish as the bank
of the Yangtze River
as young as a Yankee heart
while its sound can lead you
to the truth you are seeking, its shape
can grow into a huge yggdrasil
where your soul can perch
cawing towards the setting sun 


Y: Yellow Musings

Gold, lemon, butter, rapeseed flowers:

Pre-positioned, you function to lead
A whole column of evils as in the yellow
Peril, bastards, bellies, dogs, fish, guts
Journalism, heels, even men and pups

After words, you will become as noble
As imperial, as royal, or as Chinese
Yellow. That makes all the difference

Between a noun and an adjective
Between Chinese and English

Y: the Aptonym of Changming Yuan
        If the name is not right, the speech will carry no might – Confucius

Changing or charming
My given name is so often
Misspelt (as my family name
Which is sometimes mispronounced
Intentionally or otherwise)
That the language has definitely
Failed me in this foreign tongue, just
As Confucius warned me
As early as two thousand years ago

Unlike Fairbank
The tremendously rich banker
Unlike Cherish Hart
The particularly famous cardiologist
Unlike Jack Armstrong
Probably the greatest baseball player
Unlike Laura, my loyal lawyer
Or Dennis, your dandy dentist

Indeed, we have long
Forgotten the true name of
God, so our language is
Bound to go nowhere
Except a few rare
Cases for or
against aptonym 


Y for Yowl

Yipping, yelping, yapping
Yelling, yukking yoicking
Yawping, yackety-yakking
Yammering, yodeling, yahooing 

Yup, yummy, between and beyond

Yin/yang, yetis/yuppies
Yankees/yamatos
Yeomen/ymirs

Yowl!

Y10: Be 

You had been before

You were, and since then
You have been, although
You could, you might, you would or
You should have been, now
You are, and shortly
You are going, to be or not to be, of course
You can, you may, you will be, but if
You must be
You are to 

Be-come, which is being


Saying Yes

Yeah! Ya! Yup! Yebo!
Okay! Sure! Excellent!
No problem! That’s it!
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!

Yes! Aye! Uh-huh!
Certainly! Of cuz!
That’s more like it!
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!

All right! Great!
Absolutely! You can say that again!
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!

All’s right with the world!





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