Thursday, October 20, 2022

ĐỨC QUẢNG - SỐNG TRỌN ĐỜI LAM



ĐỨC QUẢNG - SỐNG TRỌN ĐỜI LAM

                    Thân tiễn anh Phụng


Đức Quảng - tiếng gọi thân thương ở Sài thành

Gia Định - Quảng Đức mối tình chung

Thuyền Lam chung bến chưa về đến

Mà đã xa rồi Sen Trắng xưa


Nghe nỗi buồn đau đến nghẹn lời

Sáu mươi lăm năm chẳng bỏ cuộc chơi

Thong dong cánh nhạn về cõi Phật

“Sống Trọn Đời Lam” một kiếp người


Bao nhiêu nhạc lễ, nhạc đoàn ca

Nhạc quê hương, tổ chức hay sơn hà

Ôm trọn yêu thương anh vung xới

Gieo mầm hạnh phúc ở quanh ta


Và nỗi đau nào, nỗi đau chung 

Mồ hôi, nước mắt anh chung tình

Hoa Lam rụng bến dòng Sen trắng

Thanh tịnh vườn tâm cõi lung linh.


Anh đi vạt nắng đâu sinh tử

Hạnh nguyện nghiệp duyên đáo lai sinh

Cùng nhau tô đẹp bao Sen Trắng

Trắng cả tâm cang, trắng cõi mình.


Chào Bi-Trí-Dũng anh nhé!

Gate gate, paragate, parasamgate, Bohdi svaha.


Tâm Thường Định

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Free Mindfulness workshop: Applied Neuroscience for Wellbeing

    Applied Neuroscience for Wellbeing
A workshop for all educators and administrators

“This is one of the most impactful things that I have ever experienced! I am so excited to take what I have learned and incorporate it into my own life! Thank you!!”
 - GT Teacher, Jefferson County School District  


Presenters: AnneMarie Rossi of Be Mindful 
            Dr. Phe Bach of C. Mindfulness

Friday: 11/04 from 4:15-6:15 PM PST
Location: Kim Quang Temple 
at 3119 Alta Arden Expressway, Sacramento, CA 95825
 
This workshop is FREE for all educators, administrators and parents in the CSCC and region 2.
Snacks and drink will be provided.
Give away free books.

Limited Space Available. Register NOW.  Just RSVP to phexbach@gmail.com
 
Training offered by Capital Service Center Council (CSCC)’s 
Instruction and Professional Development committee



About the presenters: 

AnneMarie Rossi.

In 2011, after more than 2 decades of mindfulness practice, AnneMarie founded the nonprofit organization Be Mindful. Our mission is to provide communities, regardless of their resources, with access to customized, highly qualified instructor-led, Applied Neuroscience and mindfulness courses, while contributing valuable research to the field.

AnneMarie has taught thousands of individuals of all ages and backgrounds the knowledge and tools necessary to transform their lives. From the world’s largest airline, Fortune 100 executives, first responder agencies across the United States, public school districts, Universities, homeless youth shelters, refugee centers, rescued sex trafficking victims and more. She is a sought after public speaker and has given much lauded Keynote addresses across the globe. Her TEDxMileHigh talk, “Why Aren’t We Teaching You Mindfulness,” has more than 400,000 views. In 2019, her collaboration with Colo. Sen. Rhonda Fields lead to the appropriation of $3 million for mental health services, including mindfulness training, in Colorado’s public schools.

AnneMarie is committed to engaging in rigorous scientific studies. She has served both as primary and co-investigator on multiple research projects in partnership with The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical school, The University of Denver, The University of Memphis, Eastern Virginia Medical School, The National Police Foundation, and The Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre. “Her most recent work, “The paradoxes of smartphone use: Understanding the user experience in today's connected world” was published on July 10, 2022 in the Journal of Consumer Affairs. 

AnneMarie graduated with Distinction as the Outstanding Undergraduate from The University of Colorado, with her BA in History with dual minors in Sociology and Educational Studies. She went on to obtain her Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Neuroscience with Distinction from King's College London. She has completed both the Mindful Schools curriculum training and is a certified Mindfulness in School (.b) instructor. AnneMarie is also the author of "First, Just Breathe: A Guide To Having Slightly Less Regret In Your Life." which has received much praise from readers. Earlier in her career, she was an award-winning stock trader and financial advisor. 

Phe Bach, EdD.
Dr. Phe Bach teaches Chemistry and Honors Chemistry at Mira Loma High School in Sacramento and is a lifelong learner and mindfulness practitioner. He is also a student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and other Buddhist teachers. He has been teaching Mindful Leadership and Mindfulness in the classroom to educators in California since 2014, and he teaches classes for teacher preparation programs. He has been a Professional Development presenter with the CTA / Stanford’s Instructional Leadership Corps; a collaboration between the California Teachers Association, Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE), and the National Board Resource Center at Stanford University (NBRC) since its inception. He founded C. Mindfulness LLC and is also a mindfulness instructor for Be Mindful. He is sharing mindfulness, self-care, and social-emotional learning with thousands of educators in the USA, mostly in the California Teachers Association. 

Furthermore, Phe has facilitated a variety of workshop topics across the academic curriculum, including educational pedagogy, management, educational leadership, and mental well-being. He received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, he then pursued the Ph.D. program in Bio-organic Chemistry and holds a Teaching Credential at UC Davis. Additionally, he earned his Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at California State University Sacramento and a Doctoral Degree in Educational Leadership and Management from Drexel University, with a concentration in Human Resources Development. He is a presenter and a contributor of academic papers in the USA and throughout the world, including Thailand, India, Spain, and Vietnam. The United Nations' Day of VESAK invited him to present in Bangkok, Thailand in 2015 and in Ha Nam, Vietnam in 2019. Furthermore, he is an advocate and a leader in his community.

During his free time, Dr. Phe Bach enjoys outdoor activities, sports, poetry, travel, and writing. He is married to Trang, has two sons, and resides in Sacramento. His contribution to the communities in Northern California enhances the mutual understanding, respect, and love that we have for each other. His input of mindfulness in teaching for youth groups, educators, and others enriches their life perspectives, school performances, and community harmony. Dr. Bach is a mindfulness practitioner and has been volunteering with the Vietnamese Buddhist Youth Association since 1995 and Buddhist Pathways Prison Project since 2011. He is also an author, a poet, and an outdoor enthusiast.
 


Friday, September 30, 2022

Hasan Abu Nimah | Tâm Quảng Nhuận dịch Việt: Những người trẻ là những nhà lãnh đạo tương lai | The youth as future leaders

Hasan Abu Nimah | Tâm Quảng Nhuận dịch Việt: Những người trẻ là những nhà lãnh đạo tương lai | The youth as future leaders

Mặc dù nói về tuổi trẻ như một tương lai nghe có vẻ mới lạ, nhưng thực tế là điều này đã xảy ra từ trước đến nay. Một thế hệ tiếp nối từ người tiền nhiệm của nó. Sự khác biệt duy nhất là nhân khẩu học: Trong thời điểm hiện tại, giới trẻ hiện rõ hơn về mặt chất lượng và số lượng. Họ cũng được chuẩn bị tốt hơn để đảm nhận các vai trò hiệu quả hơn trong xã hội của mình, nhờ vào nền giáo dục tiên tiến, cũng như được tiếp xúc với các phương tiện thông tin hiện đại và sự phát triển vượt bậc của khoa học.

Song, với những câu sáo rỗng được sử dụng quá mức quen thuộc, chẳng hạn như “thanh niên là đầu tàu của ngày mai”, “thanh niên là tương lai”“thanh niên sẽ thay đổi thế giới” và những tình tiết tương tự, có thể đúng, những người trẻ tuổi của chúng ta, những người chiếm 1,8 tỷ dân số thế giới của chúng ta, xứng đáng được thừa nhận và xem xét kỹ lưỡng hơn là bị thu gọn vào một loạt những câu nói sáo rỗng. Chúng ta đang sống trong một thế giới rất khác và thay đổi nhanh chóng ngày nay.

Phương tiện truyền thông xã hội đã vĩnh viễn thay đổi cách chúng ta giao tiếp và biến thế giới trở thành một nơi nhỏ hơn rất nhiều, vì tất cả chúng ta ngày càng kết nối với nhau, tuy nhiên, mặc dù mối quan hệ giữa các bên gia tăng như vậy, chúng ta cũng đang sống trong một thế giới phải đối mặt với những thách thức xã hội to lớn. Tổng số 1,8 tỷ dân số thế giới là thanh niên, trong độ tuổi từ 10 đến 24, thế hệ kết nối với nhau nhiều nhất mọi thời đại. Chúng ta cũng đang sống trong thời kỳ đầy biến động, đầy bất ổn và xung đột.

Nhiều người cho rằng mạng xã hội và sự kết nối giao tiếp đã tạo ra một thế hệ những người theo dõi chứ không phải các nhà lãnh đạo và một thế hệ chỉ tham gia và quan tâm đến những mục tiêu tầm thường. Giới trẻ ngày nay thường bị buộc tội là quá mải mê theo dõi mạng xã hội và tự cho mình là nhà lãnh đạo. Nhưng phương tiện truyền thông xã hội đã được sử dụng bởi những người trẻ tuổi trên toàn thế giới để dẫn dắt, tạo ra sự thay đổi và để giữ cho những người cao niên của họ có trách nhiệm. Ví dụ, ở Myanmar, mạng xã hội đã được sử dụng để lấp đầy khoảng trống của chính phủ trong việc chống lại lời nói hận thù. Ở Trung Đông, Mùa xuân Ả Rập bắt đầu trên mạng xã hội và giúp giới trẻ tổ chức một cuộc cách mạng chưa từng có bắt đầu ở Tunisia và lan sang Ai Cập, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain và các nước Trung Đông khác. Các nhà hoạt động trẻ, đấu tranh cho nhiều nguyên nhân khác nhau, từ nhân quyền đến biến đổi khí hậu, dựa vào mạng xã hội để truyền tải thông điệp của họ. Điều vẫn không đổi giữa tất cả những khuôn sáo là câu hỏi cũ: Ai sẽ dẫn đầu phong trào thay đổi tích cực trong thế giới của chúng ta?

Theo tôi, câu trả lời là rất rõ ràng. Trong suốt lịch sử, các phong trào thành công nhất được tổ chức bởi thanh niên, bao gồm phong trào dân quyền và nhiều cuộc biểu tình lịch sử chống lại các chính sách bất công, chiến tranh và chính trị do thanh niên tiến hành. Các phong trào thanh niên luôn đóng một vai trò quan trọng và tất yếu trong lịch sử trên toàn thế giới. Lý do là vì các nhà lãnh đạo trẻ được truyền cảm hứng bởi lý tưởng hơn là xu hướng và họ luôn trung thành với lý tưởng của mình, bất chấp giá phải trả, không bao giờ bỏ cuộc bất chấp nhiều thách thức và trở ngại đặt trên con đường của họ. Chính thái độ duy tâm thường khiến họ bị mang tiếng xấu lại là điều khiến họ trở thành những nhà lãnh đạo giỏi. Trong khi không hiếm các nhà lãnh đạo kỳ cựu đánh mất động lực và chỉ đơn giản là làm theo phong trào lãnh đạo nửa vời, mất niềm tin; các nhà lãnh đạo trẻ được truyền cảm hứng và thúc đẩy bản thân thông qua những lý tưởng và động lực không khoan nhượng để tạo ra thay đổi tích cực cho tương lai của họ. Thông qua những lý tưởng này, các nhà lãnh đạo trẻ có thể thực hiện quyền lực đối với bản thân và đồng nghiệp của họ để dẫn dắt sự tham gia và cải cách của người dân. Phần lớn rơi vào vai các nhà lãnh đạo thanh niên vì chính họ sẽ là người dẫn dắt sự thay đổi và mở đường cho tương lai. Có thể thấy điều này trong các phong trào của giới trẻ hiện nay trên toàn thế giới.

Ví dụ, ở Jordan, lãnh đạo thanh niên đang nổi lên như một phong trào quan trọng. Đây là điều không thể tránh khỏi ở một quốc gia mà phần lớn cư dân ở độ tuổi từ 15 đến 35. Tương lai của một nhóm dân số trẻ quá mức chỉ có thể được dẫn dắt bởi chính thanh niên của quốc gia đó. Điều này không thể được chứng minh rõ ràng hơn khi Thái tử Hussein 23 tuổi của Jordan có bài phát biểu toàn cầu vang dội tại Đại hội đồng Liên Hợp Quốc, tự mình nói với các nhà lãnh đạo thế giới để nhắc nhở họ về bổn phận và trách nhiệm của họ, trước các đồng nghiệp của mình và kêu gọi vào các bạn trẻ của mình để nắm quyền làm chủ tương lai vào tay mình. Thái tử Hussein tự giới thiệu mình là người ủng hộ “thế hệ thanh niên lớn nhất thế giới”. Anh ấy là một ví dụ về một người mà việc trao quyền cho thanh niên là rất quan trọng, bởi vì nếu không có nó, đất nước của anh ấy không thể phát triển. Trong thế giới ngày nay, cục diện đã thay đổi. Các xã hội gia trưởng không còn có thể phát triển mạnh. Đó là một thế giới mới do giới trẻ lãnh đạo và tương lai của họ phụ thuộc vào các nhà lãnh đạo trẻ vì họ có động lực, lý tưởng, kỹ năng và sức mạnh để làm điều đó.

Phong trào thanh niên toàn cầu lại đang tiếp tục phát triển trên khắp thế giới. Các cuộc tuần hành và các cuộc cách mạng do thanh niên lãnh đạo trên khắp thế giới đang trở thành tiêu chuẩn. Ở Ấn Độ và Bangladesh, các cô gái trẻ đã dẫn đầu phong trào của chính mình, bất chấp cha mẹ bằng cách đòi hỏi quyền và tự do chống lại nạn tảo hôn, đòi quyền được đi học an toàn và không bị ép buộc kết hôn dưới tuổi vị thành niên. Ở Ấn Độ, thanh niên đã đấu tranh chống lại lao động trẻ em thông qua các phong trào do thanh niên lãnh đạo. Những câu chuyện tương tự có thể được tìm thấy trên khắp thế giới khi phong trào thanh niên ngày càng phát triển. Ở Trung Đông, lực lượng mạnh mẽ của Mùa xuân Ả Rập và sự liên kết của nó với các phương tiện truyền thông xã hội đã có tác động mạnh mẽ đến khu vực của chúng tôi. Những người trẻ tuổi thách thức chính phủ của họ ở một nơi trên thế giới, nơi tự do ngôn luận không phải là chuẩn mực. Những người trẻ tuổi, thông qua mạng xã hội, đã gây ra một cuộc cách mạng toàn diện trong thế giới Ả Rập vẫn đang diễn ra cho đến ngày nay.

Ở Mỹ, giới trẻ đang dẫn đầu phong trào chống lại bạo lực súng đạn vì chính họ là những người bị ảnh hưởng nặng nề nhất bởi bạo lực này. Sau vụ thảm sát ở trường Parkland vào ngày 14 tháng 2, một nhóm học sinh, trong số đó có những người sống sót và một số trẻ mới 11 tuổi, đoàn kết với nhau bởi thảm kịch của vụ thảm sát, đã hoàn thành trách nhiệm tổ chức “Tháng Ba cho Cuộc sống của chúng ta”, một phản sự kiện bạo lực súng đạn ở Washington, DC, được mô phỏng tại hàng trăm thị trấn và thành phố trên toàn cầu. Để thúc đẩy phong trào mang tên “Never Again”, họ bắt đầu liên hệ với các chính trị gia để ủng hộ sự thay đổi lập pháp. Họ đang thách thức và yêu cầu chính phủ của họ chịu trách nhiệm về sự an toàn cho cuộc sống của trẻ em. Những đứa trẻ này đang buộc các chính trị gia của họ phải chịu trách nhiệm và nắm quyền đối với người mà họ bầu chọn để bảo vệ cuộc sống và tương lai của họ. Theo những sinh viên trẻ này, các chính trị gia của họ đã không kiểm soát được bạo lực súng đạn, không bảo vệ họ và không bảo vệ được thế hệ của họ, vì vậy họ phải tự giải quyết vấn đề và đảm bảo nó không bao giờ xảy ra nữa. Những câu chuyện tương tự có thể được nghe thấy trên khắp thế giới; những người trẻ tuổi đang vận động, tự mình giải quyết vấn đề để tạo ra những thay đổi tích cực vì một tương lai tốt đẹp hơn và một thế giới tốt đẹp hơn.

Khác với sự thờ ơ, những người trẻ tuổi đang thách thức chính phủ của họ, buộc họ phải chịu trách nhiệm và yêu cầu thay đổi. Chế độ dân tộc thiểu số chắc chắn đã là dĩ vãng. Tuy nhiên, cả hai có thể được hòa giải; nó không phải là trường hợp những người trẻ tuổi được đặt ra chống lại thế hệ cũ, nó là về nhu cầu, lợi ích và sự hiểu biết lẫn nhau giữa hai nhóm nhân khẩu học. Đó là về những thay đổi lớn cần những nhà lãnh đạo trẻ để họ thành hiện thực và đó là về việc định hình tương lai, điều không thể thực hiện được nếu không có thế hệ trẻ.

Vì vậy, bên dưới những khuôn sáo quen thuộc, có những lý do rất xác đáng để giải thích tại sao chúng lại là sự thật. Chính lý tưởng, động lực và khả năng không bỏ cuộc cũng như thách thức hiện trạng đã khiến các nhà lãnh đạo trẻ trở thành những nhà lãnh đạo hiệu quả như họ.

Nói một cách đơn giản, những người trẻ tuổi có sức mạnh để thay đổi thế giới và họ sẽ làm được. Họ có thể là động lực thúc đẩy sự phát triển và tồn tại hòa bình của bất kỳ quốc gia hay khu vực nào.

Source:

The youth as future leaders

Hasan Abu Nimah

Although talking about youth as the future sounds novel, the reality is that this has been the case all along. One generation takes over from its predecessor. The only difference is demographic: In the current time, youth are more visible, qualitatively and quantitatively. They are also better prepared to assume more effective roles in their societies, thanks to their advanced education, as well as their exposure to modern communication facilities and scientific progressive surge.

And yet and apart from the familiar overused clichés, such as “the youth are the leaders of tomorrow”, “the youth are the future”, “the youth will change the world” and similar platitudes, which may, indeed, be true, our young people, who constitute 1.8 billion of our world’s population, deserve deeper acknowledgment and scrutiny than being reduced to a series of clichés. We live in a very different and fast-changing world today.

Social media has forever changed the way we communicate and made the world a much smaller place, as we are all increasingly interconnected, yet despite this increased interconnectivity, we also live in a world faced with enormous social challenges. A total of 1.8 billion of the world’s population are youth, aged between 10 and 24, the most interconnected generation of all times. We also live in volatile times, rife with instability and conflict.

Many argue that social media and interconnectivity have created a generation of followers, not leaders and a generation engaged and interested only in trivial pursuits. Today’s youth is often accused of being too engrossed in following social media and in self-absorption to be leaders. But social media has been used by young people all over the world to lead, to make change and to hold their seniors to account. In Myanmar, for example, social media has been used to fill the void of their government in fighting hate speech. In the Middle East, the Arab Spring began on social media and helped youth organise an unprecedented revolution that started in Tunisia and spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain and other Middle Eastern countries. Young activists, fighting for a variety of causes ranging from human rights to climate change, rely on social media to get their message across. What remains constant amidst all the clichés is the age old question: Who is going to lead the movement for positive change in our world?

In my opinion, the answer is very clear. Throughout history, the most successful movements were organised by the youth, including the civil rights movement and many historical protests against unjust policies, wars and politics were conducted by the youth. Youth movements have always played a major and inevitable role in history all around the world. The reason for this is because young leaders are inspired by ideals rather than trends and they stay true to their ideals, regardless of the cost, never giving up despite the many challenges and obstacles placed in their paths. The same idealistic attitude that often earns them a bad reputation is precisely what makes them good leaders. Whilst it is not uncommon for veteran leaders to lose motivation and simply go through the motions of leadership half-heartedly, having lost faith; young leaders are inspired and push themselves through their uncompromised ideals and motivation to make a positive change for their future. Through these ideals, young leaders are able to exercise authority over themselves and their peers to lead civic engagement and reform. Much falls on the shoulders of youth leaders because it is they who will lead change and pave the way for the future. This can be seen in youth movements all over the world today.

In Jordan, for example, youth leadership is emerging as a significant movement. This is inevitable in a country where the majority of residents are aged between 15 and 35. The future of an overwhelmingly youthful population can only be led by its own youth. This could not be more evident than when Jordan’s 23-year-old Crown Prince Hussein gave a resounding global speech at the UN General Assembly, taking it upon himself to address world leaders to remind them of their duties and responsibilities, addressing his peers and calling on his fellow youth to take ownership of the future into their own hands. Crown Prince Hussein introduced himself as an advocate of the “largest generation of young people in the world.” He is an example of someone for whom youth empowerment is very important, because without it his country cannot thrive. In today’s world, the tables have turned. Patriarchal societies can no longer thrive. It is a new world led by the youth and whose future depends on young leaders because they have the motivation, idealism, skills and the power to do so.

The global youth movement is yet again gaining momentum all around the world. Marches and youth-led revolutions all over the world are becoming the norm. In India and Bangladesh, young girls have led their own movement, defying their parents by demanding their rights and freedom against the practice of child marriage, demanding their right to attend school in safety and not to be forced into underage marriage. In India, young people have been fighting against child labour through youth-led movements. Similar stories can be found all around the world as the youth movement gains force. In the Middle East, the powerful force of the Arab Spring and its association with social media has had a dramatic impact on our region. Young people challenging their governments in a part of the world where freedom of speech is not the norm. Young people, through social media, caused a full-blown revolution in the Arab world that is still ongoing today.

In the US, it is the youth that is leading the movement against gun violence because it is they who are most affected by this violence. After the Parkland School massacre on February 14, a group of students, amongst them survivors and some as young as 11 years old, united by the tragedy of the massacre, took complete charge in organising the “March for our Lives”, an anti-gun violence event in Washington, DC, which was emulated in hundreds of towns and cities across the globe. To push forward their movement entitled “Never Again”, they began contacting politicians to advocate legislative change. They are challenging and holding their government responsible for the safety of children’s lives. These kids are holding their politicians accountable and taking power over who they vote for in order to safeguard their lives and their future. According to these young students, their politicians have failed to control gun violence, failed to protect them and failed to safeguard their generation, so it is up to them to take matters into their own hands and ensure it never happens again. Similar stories can be heard all over the world; young people mobilising, taking matters into their own hands to make positive changes for a better future and a better world.

Far from being apathetic, young people are challenging their governments, holding them accountable and demanding change. Gerontocracy is definitely a thing of the past. However, the two can be reconciled; it is not a case of young people being set against the older generation, it is about mutual needs, benefits and understanding between the two demographics. It is about major changes that need young leaders for them to materialise and it is about shaping the future, which cannot be done without the young generation.

So beneath the familiar clichés, there are very valid reasons as to why they ring true. It is the idealism, the motivation and the ability to not give up and to challenge the status quo that makes young leaders the effective leaders they are.

To put it simply, young people have the power to change the world and they will. They can be the driving force behind the development and peaceful existence of any nation or region.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Nguyễn Vy Khanh: Poet Ha Nguyen Du

 Nguyễn Vy Khanh

Poet Ha Nguyen Du


Since the H.O. element was added to the overseas Vietnamese community, Vietnamese poetry, which originally had been increasingly dense with firewood, suddenly emerged with words of hope. Ha Nguyen Du is among these, having left his hometown ten years ago. After many losses and complications, in the past two years, he has released two poetry collections, The Other Path (Garden Grove CA: Tan Thu, 1998) and the volume (I know, my dearest) (Westminster CA: Tu Luc, 2001).


Those who are looking for the essence of poetry, walking on Ha Nguyen Du's exotic paths, will not be disappointed. The poems that yield the impression of a connoisseur are ultimately full of art and metaphors, and are highly promising. Throughout the poem collection, with the quality of the art sometimes smoldering and obvious, the poet shows a sensitive but also resolute soul according to the situation of the moment, and the general peripheral situation that is required. This is a poet who lives and breathes to compose, lives for poetry, lives strongly with the subtleties of the art, with the will to strive to open new paths!


Ha Nguyen Du seems to make it difficult for people to enjoy poetry with rarefied, unexpected words, broken chords, and abandoned sentiments, but that's also Ha Nguyen Du’s special characteristic. He appears to be playing hide and seek with his poetry, providing a rhythmic poetry that is not rhymed, poetry in natural conversational discourse, indignation, dialogue, communication... Cadenced or cacophonic poems, revealing confessions of love or acrimony. In form, the way a new line is started, even and uneven tones, middle to high pitches, caesuras are employed, and words are played on, is like a dictionary with misaligned character sets and phonic marks; the way the exclamation mark is used (Spring Poems with Many Exclamation marks!!), the way words are placed onto the page - the “New Layout” post is written with the letter B, the poem ”Huu Dung” has an S shape, “Bào Thai Cảm Xúc”, with the letter C that looks like a capital E, or is it just an emotional fetal arrow? The word "Hao Quang" gradually narrows after it has been expanded - may be intended to show people the feelings of resistance, pain, thinking, and boredom, of a poet who has to live in difficult circumstances. Without choice, the body and soul are damned, but the soul is always awake, always aiming for beauty, and truth. The poems have a bitter, violent shell, but are wrapped with the sweetness of steamed sugarcane coming from human love!


Ha Nguyen Du's poetry overwhelms literary readers because of the heavy contrasts between love and real life. Poetry here is the end of emotions, what remains after passions, real lives. "I gave birth to me / to many poems / many words strained / like a haggard / a heavy cell / on me / a melancholic tumor..." (“I Born Me”). 


Ha Nguyen Du delineates poetry as "breathing/an updated physiology" after "having nothing left to give/being bankrupt yet still has “poetry," (“Nothing Left”), poetry as expedient salvation:


"...and for you, dearest, for you alone


the parable is soaked in the nectar of the nitobe chrysanthemum


when life is winter reverberating self-existence


a winter when roses are no longer in full bloom


the chrysanthemum draggingly wi, impermanent


The evening glow in your hand negotiates the color of the tree arch at the end of the alley


The mountain melancholically stands in angst about shadows traversing


Salvation poetry on every heartbeat


like a Zen master momentarily enlightened"


(“Winter Parable”)



Because poetry can lighten darkness:


"... poetry is written with words of blood


turns on the light


lightening darkness


ordinary human beings


bound by rigmaroles


this existential body!"


(“Tamed Rhythm”).


"The sea of ​​life rages with fury" to "let the word/lull agony/love the child to escape exile" (“Loving the Son”). 


Poetry becomes light or the last hope: "spiral/enters the universe/centrifugal/collects all the stories of life/ I am me / of the waning moon / of the ebbing tide / of tantalizing nothingness / you are you / of my poetry / of everlastingness / of Being" (Chân Như).


Sometimes the poet is ashamed and wants to crucify words, sometimes the sense of smell does not fulfill its function, "causing words to be deprived of heart/poetry as arid alluvial/disregardful of particular aromas of flowers" (Written in Ficomp, Santa Ana). 


The poet has a very profound, highly sensitive mind to very ordinary creatures:


"I know, my dearest


when the river flows


it rollovers carrying with it a lot of waste


water diminishing its blue


the algae punished with discoloration


The waves germinating plots to eradicate the foam..."


(“I Know, My Dearest 1”)


Click the image to enlarge


Ha Nguyen Du's poetry has content that conveys emotions, confidences or messages, and experiences left behind. The rhymes are light, with poetic sound features:


"... stack of old letters filled with your promises


But, oh now! just a maelstrom


I love you so, remembering the day we got acquainted


When we kiss, you say you’ll leave school..."


(“Stack of Old Letters”)


"... the autumn forest barren, dead leaves covering up the path


Love of old days


Military maneuvers in the forest, one distant day, someone...


Deeply in love


Distended with adventurous longing, I still love you


steadfastly, steadfastly..."


(“Still Perching on the Branch of Love”)


"...summer is coming, what would you say to the sunshine?


Mourn the fallen leaves emptying the dry branches?


The old cicada ripening its melody 


What do you remember in the flamboyant flower petals pressed in poetry?"


(“Summer And You”)


Composing poetry, truly living poetry, signifies "disclosing openly each compartment of memory/primitive love, a brief trance, physical appearance/ you hide behind neurosis, behind the fibers of your flesh/ although quiet but not silent..." (“In and Out of Life”), because how can you remain silent when the vestiges of your homeland are full of remembrances, flesh and skin? Ha Nguyen Du's “Tha La Parish” is Mary, is "jade".


"Mary dearest, it’s hard to forget the old days


Even in shackles, yet you are gentle!


you give me a load of energy, a load of streams of poetry


flowing boundlessly


...Mary dearest, my love from Tha La


Barricaded by tons of mountains, we are not far away from each 


I'll come back tomorrow to look for you, jade, tomorrow I'll come back to see you


you, flower..."


(“My dearest,” Tha La)


The background of a painful past can leave traces:


"The fate of death and "


Is hallowed only to God


Cities growing up in forests


Overlords fighting one another


eyes rolling back


up to four thousand years


Whereabout wretched souls are groaning


It’s time to wait for the benevolent ruler


tyrants"


(“Tyrants”)


The past is the darkness of “Life Ruined”: "camp a / camp b / a 1, b 4 / handcuffs / U-shaped shackles/doctrines, conspiracy theory / young lives ruined".


"I am a bird whose wings are broken when the flock is scattered


I, a lame horse when the storm hits..."


(“You And The Way Out”)


So:


"once I limp


the shoulder buckles!


In front of roads not traveled


And pangs of everlasting sadness


About hundreds of thousands of diseases...


coming from the direction of injustice


Regardless, it's a chase after all..."


(“Regardless”)


Why is it unjust? Is it "four thousand years of offering / four thousand years of division/squash seeds rotten/ gourd stalks withered / mad at the empty barrels/whose sounds are bursting the eardrums / angry with the cowardly hands / crushing several generations" (“Generations Crushed”).


Poets are also angry at times, understandably, because:


"more than halfway around the distant earth


I always see it so close


because the roots are tightly implanted in the heart


because love is flesh and blood.."


(“Still Remembering”).


And I still remember a lot because, in the home of the Statue of Liberty, human interactions are normal, but buffoons even when not sought, are still seen everywhere.


"... a quart into a pint pot


preaching executioners


...bad actors fixing makeup


Are plotting farces


Unread about scripts


Enamored with jumping on the bandwagon


Like puppeteers.."


(“Nothing Left”).


"Exiled, I'm a listless guest" (Nguyen Lu), I have to stop “Brush Your Hair”, to take care of my mother and sister back in my home country. Who says that being exiled is speaking about your parents whose recollection of someday “Under the sunset, Dad Sits Sifting Rice”, but "now that the sun is setting, who's going to sit and sift rice/ probably replacing Mommy’ shadow waiting for her son! / the roving son from thousands of miles away / living in exile, missing her immensely". In a state of extreme pessimism, he sometimes wishes to leave the world with his Last Word ... About A Prophecy. Because living alone is many a time a deadly experience: "that part of the bridge, that part is tottery / lost his ground in this world!" (Superfluous Step). Sad but not hopeless, because there still are aspirations (Tran Tinh Khuc). Restless sleep: "the slapping waves of the shallow pond or the sound of bells?!" (TVCB).


"...canes grow on rare soil


How can you find yellow apricot flowers amongst the thousands of green trees of different species?


Communications daubed in frost


Green sprouts cannot penetrate the ancient words?


journey poetry


receiving the miracle of the elixir..."


(“Burgeoning Buds”)


So it is, and that is the poet's subjectivity!


Click the image to enlarge


It can be said that the unique feature of Ha Nguyen Du's poetry, if it has to be evaluated, is in the many strange and deliberate images, familiar to the poet but maybe strange to the reader. He is like a person who has a lot of thoughts to be shared, many experiences to be recorded, to be dedicated, and many innermost thoughts to preserve lest they are lost. “You, love, are the cycle of the sun and the moon", are both reincarnation and permanence, in the realm of yin and yang, as in the feelings of the heart.


"This flower in this sad world of birth and death


Nowhere can humanity escape death and rebirth.


You are the cycle of the sun and the moon


That gives me breath, shame, and honor..."


(“You are the Cycle of the sun and the Moon”)


Or some swan song that Ha Nguyen Du yearns to hear in objects of naked reality:



"Does love still bear green leaves and flowers?


Why is it like cicadas crooning a lullaby on the Chinese parasol tree


Why is it like living in the past, water receding


You, with eyes and lips sadly closed, are waiting


...We still dream, still long for each other


Clouds yield devastating rains, then the clouds are stretching out melancholy


You appear to repent when love goes astray


I live in exile singing my swan song..."


(Quoc Ly Tao).



Sad beautiful pictures of the “dwindling Sun Rays” in “Dropped Love”: 


“...slanting sun rays, the sun is setting


Do you hear that fast pace of human life ?"


Today's poem wears the familiar image of cigarette smoke evanescing:


"...I miss the person rimmed in with evanescing cigarette smoke


the wilting spring branches, the white nights


My heart flutters with the tide


My dear! Would you ever know?..."


(“Missing the Person of Evanescing Cigarette Smoke”)


The subconscious folk poetry lives in the lines of the Rap period:



"Crossing the river, I miss the spans of the bridge


Crossing the moor, I’m imbibed with the pain of this grim life


Making it through the night, I appreciate the sun more, through humanity I see 


Relationships are so fragile, wherever but not through you?


Through all the challenges, all the grief-stricken nuisances, through whomever as to be jointly 


bound in trouble, through the miserable country, through exile in austere 


prisons, across the river, to remember the spans of the bridge, through poetry to arrive


at the dangerous mulberry field.."


(“My Folk Poetry”)


Poetry is a place to relieve the fury and intensity of life. In love, sensuality insinuates itself into the very end of all instinctual crevices:


"keep kissing me / oh lips of fire/run after the tidal wave hands / let go of love / like a tiger / tearing apart a young dear / when hungry / your body is like a ripe fruit/ecstatic dream/I, a traveler on a sunny road/panting, empty stomach / undoubtedly not afraid to break the monastery precepts! / don’t abstain from hunger pangs! 


Keep wrapping me up / wrapping me like a python / with your murderous curves / the smell of the forbidden fruit emulating pheromone


…lost soul / opening the door to birth... / also the door to death !"


(“Journey of Craziness, of Trance”)


Poetry is created with words, with language, with a capacity for interaction, with the subconscious, the wordless. Why not play with words?


"...recollection remembrances


Memory knowledge


Heart fire burning fire


Death/birth death demon..."


(“Recollection”)


"...wrap me up with a rope of multiple knots


Oh, Gosh, so twisted…


Derailed


Burdened with family responsibilities!"


(“Family”)


Listen to why love is so twisted, not smooth at all!


"Use heart


Smooth out the rough parts


Fingers manage with dy


sparks of love on the wall of the dark dungeon


suppressing mockery


blooming on the branches of benevolence and righteousness


Accruing Bodhi and Charity


Self-existence Nonself"


(“Self/Nonself”)


Playing with words as from which one can find the essence of life, find out the pure substance of birth, love. Like speculating on numbers to find salvation in “Pondering over the Impossible”! Or the mathematical symbols applied to the ego or a life full of calculations:


"I'm not me when I've not arrived


I'm just me when I come to me and when I


come to me that is me I have to leave me to


connect with the other me’s around me [tôi]


... and become “toi” [death] with the circumflex accent (^) missing to understand that


The (^) accent is like a bridge between words


not merely a mark, a..."


(“Is That Right, My Dearest?”)


And so go the semantic marks ', `, +, = , etc.


Click the image to enlarge


Another feature worthy of noting in Ha Nguyen Du's poetry is the syncretization of ancient and modern writing, dead languages and living languages, dictionary languages, street slang, etc. Is this to express the here-and-now existence, of which parts belong to the past? A worn-out existence, an unneeded life, or still alive, but thinking I’m already dead, still in existence but filled up with seeds to rot like rice seedlings after a longer-than-usual flood, because of the destructive cruelty of time, of nature, and people...


Ha Nguyen Du is in command of the way he uses words, echoing formal classical literary language, sometimes exotic, next to the colloquial of street cries, conversations, greetings, confessions of love, innocent at times, concise at others, of the ordinary life:


"...waiting for someone in the summer night? Velvet tears, unfairly blaming


karma, lodged in asperity, in the lullabies sung by cicadas, crying..."


(“Dark Summer Night”)


"Panicking again about trivialities


You’re still round like a solar/lunar eclipse


And that is where the noose trap lies..."


(“Panicking Again”)


"...you are waning as my precious stone


the stone fate the life of algae on those wild roving days..."


(“When Love Steps Pass Through”)


"...the moon descending, the sun setting, the clouds dropping


I, you keep singing, the eternally sad song…"


(“Already A Bird Has Flown”)


People who are not familiar with Ha Nguyen Du's style will become confused between “nguyệt tà” (the moon descending) and “dương xế” (the sun setting) with “tà dương” (crepuscule) or about the word “thôi” employed in more than one way, with only one meaning:


"...which egress would help us to avoid mortality


Just (thôi) gobbledygook! Cease (thôi) to separate human lives..."


(“You Are the Sun and Moon Cycle”)


Or the three sentences "remembering recently/time for spring parting (xuân ly)/remembering bitterly ...", xuân ly, not phân ly (separation), but it appears to want to say separation, probably that's how remembrances become poetry.


Through paragraphing, and punctuation, memories fall apart following the words:


"...student songs


Directed towards the sun


Songs for humanity


Voice of love does not dwindle


Students’ steps


tamarind leaves, the paths to poetry


blue eyes entering life brighten up the horizon of dreams…"


(“Student Heart”)


Or as prolonged as a tormenting recollection: "You cried one afternoon you cried, so demure the rain outside is, facing the particles of frost/ the wind outside appears to stop her adventurous journey, Lo and behold! Your tears emulate the sky storming..." (“Beauty”)


Eight-word poems are placed side by side. Farther are long-winded poems of the New Formalism style, as in un-ended confessions, or if there does exist a desire to end, just stop as if tired or why een bother stopping like in Rap music! 


Let's read “Ha Nguyen,” “Gene Ocean,” “I Know,” “My Dearest Love 2,” poetry as ayurvedic breathing! Sentences can be eight words but lines may be intertwined at will; rhyming doesn't stop at caesuras or paragraphing with intertwined lines, if you want to stop, stop in the mind, in the middle of the sentence, in the middle of the road!


The poet also uses different genres in the same composition, switching only according to sentiments.


"...waiting for someone in the summer night? Velvet tears, unfairly blaming


karma, lodged in asperity, in the lullabies sung by cicadas, crying


over the avowing moon, white nights, ephemeral pleasures


Oh, dark night!


Sunshine embroiders the surrounding mountains


Wilting the branch of mine


Yours the leaves are falling plenty…”


(“Dark Summer Night”)



“Cursed moonlight, staying awake at night, sectarianism


flower Butterfly


Oh my god!


sun embroidered a thousand fins


withered my branches


I have fallen leaves..."


(“Ha Huyen Night”)


Ha Nguyen Du experiments with several poetry genres, refreshing his style, different from the verse, liberalizing poetry that is already free, and in each poetry genre the poet experiments with a new style, employing words differently, replacing them with words ordinarily not used. The musical aspect is always present, sometimes as rhythmic as a folk song (ca dao), sometimes as long as a popular classical vọng cổ tune, and at other times, full of the rhythms of contemporary sentiments. Ha Nguyen Du's poetry must be recited to appreciate its beauty, the pleasures it gives, its poetic flavor, and the latent implications of sounds and words! Poems like “Give Me a Tango”, “Give Me a Sonnet”, “Dark Summer Night” must be read aloud for us to get in touch with the subconscious feelings of a heart, of the hyphen, and of period marks!


As Ha Nguyen Du once confided at the beginning of his poetry collection, after thirty years of being more or less happy with poetry, he now has returned to it with dedication. And he’s dedicated to making it new, different. As a synthesis. As a form of "assimilation" with the American Society of the New Formalism. Since the beginning of the existence of humanity, there have always been people searching for the meaning of words, cloaking them with particular characteristics of the time. Trends and literary schools then arise! Any school, any search is only a means for poetry; at worst it is but a home menu, supplementing new flavors to commonly-used dishes. But the poetic quality and distinctive characteristics of a poet cannot simply be a household menu, but instead must go beyond to be in touch with the poetic essence, the source of poetry! In quietness, it lies deep down below in the words incidentally evoked, in skillful metaphors!


In this second collection of poems by Ha Nguyen Du, the experimental part based on the poetry of the Postmodern period, the Neo-formal period, the hypertext, etc. is still too early to evaluate, but an unaccustomed fastidious reader still can feel through some poetic imagery, rhyming, and content. In the poems of his that are really "new", that can be "acceptable"(!), Ha Nguyen Du has left something other than a genre focusing on form. In the remaining two or three parts, Ha Nguyen Du does not disappoint poetry connoisseurs with special characteristics of his own. Paradoxically, in the use of hobbled words, of images or faulted rhythms, unexpected, one can find special features of success, such as a special kind of "musicality", a "tone" that is very poetic, very Ha Nguyen Du!


Here and there are gentle words like folk songs, with the passion of a first love, but Ha Nguyen Du's poetry is not the familiar, trodden path, but the highway opening up, spreading further everlastingly, non-stop, despite some mental glitches, disconcerted by the life of integration! Poetry confronting words and reality!


7-11-2000


Translated by Phe Bach

Edited by Dr. Thai V. Nguyen