William Marr is a Chinese-American poet who has published 23 volumes of poetry (two in English and the rest in his native Chinese language) ,3 books of essays, several books of translations, and 10 eBooks. His most recent published work, Chicago Serenade, is a trilingual (Chinese/English/French) anthology of poems published in Paris in 2015. His poetry has been translated into more than ten languages and included in over one hundred anthologies. Some of his poems are used in high school and college textbooks in Taiwan, China, England, and Germany. In addition to writing poetry, he has also engaged in translating Western modern poetry into Chinese and has edited several anthologies of Chinese and Taiwanese modern poetry. He is a former president of the Illinois State Poetry Society and has received numerous honors, including several awards from Taiwan and China for his poetry and translations. A PhD recipient and a scientific researcher by profession, he has been in recent years pursuing other artistic interests including painting and sculpting and has held several solo as well as group exhibits in the U.S. and China. His Website, The Art World of William Marr (http: //feima.yidian.org) displays some of his literary and artistic works.
April arrived
with a message on my desk
'Call Mr. Lyon—
Urgent! ! ! '
...
Roaming somewhere in the universe
a clang from an anvil
or a hollow resonance from the woods
is yet to reach me
...
Many would take it
as the midway station to heaven
nineteen hundred miles up
can heaven be far away?
...
Standing on top of a skyscraper
one can no doubt pick the stars with ease
yet from here it seems more likely
that the stars descend from the sky themselves
...