The Wheel

We walk straight towards a body pulled by desire to bloom inside limbs which one day will crack, deform and decompose. I imagine how a drunken soul aspiring to joy gives itself to the vacuum of space, which like amniotic fluid will sustain it until earthy arrival.

Incarnation, the act of a soul entering the “carne,” consists of expanding to be constricted. Pure energy aiming to be shaped into form bursts into life. It’s a two-being affair, one wishing to return because of unfulfilled desires, and another attracting it with a longing of its own. The expansion proves illusory, the soul confined into perishable matter suffers and the Hansel and Gretel’s markers left on the cosmic path are swept away.

as the blue planet beckons a blind soul rushes into the trap of the wheel

Anna Yin was Mississauga’s Inaugural Poet Laureate (2015-17) and has authored five poetry collections and two books of translations including: Mirrors and Windows (Guernica Editions 2021). Anna won the 2005 Ted Plantos Memorial Award, two MARTYs, two scholarships from USA and grants from Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts. Her poems/translations have appeared at Queen’s Quarterly, ARC Poetry, New York Times, China Daily, CBC Radio, Literary Review of Canada etc. She read on Parliament Hill, at Austin International Poetry Festival, Edmonton Poetry Festival and universities in China, Canada and USA etc. She has designed and taught Poetry Alive since 2011.