Standing Still for Survival

Long long before long ago, Earth
Was originally set within a koru

Unfurling at every antlike moment
Directly towards the sun, until
          Now it is too overloaded
With evil spirits & viruses

To continue revolution as it
            Tries to return to itself

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Yuan Changming started to learn the English alphabet at age nineteen and authored monographs on translation before leaving China. Currently, Yuan edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include Pushcart nominations and appearances in the Best Canadian Poetry & BestNewPoemsOnline, among others. Recently, Yuan published a Chinese poetry collection 《袁昌明诗选》(Selected Poems of Yuan Changming).

[image: An unfurling silver fern frond | Jon Radoff, CC BY 2.5]