the purpose of the vietnamese amateur poetry society in usa ...

cụm hoa tình yêu  /  flowers of love
fleurs d'amour -
Hội thơ  tài tử Việtnam hải ngoại  xb - USA, 2008.



                                                   Thoughts on a Career in Poetry
                                                                Roger Weaver

     When  I began teaching poetry at OSU, there were many two prevailing schools of thought:
     1) that poetry writing couldn't be taught, and  2) that everybody could teach it.  Having experiented that it could be 'caught' , from the 1960's I have continued to pitch it
      But  do I inderstand what makes  lyric poem ?  I continue to try, but the very nature of the lyric defies definition and that has made lyric poet subject to persecution.  Witness Stalin' s ' canaries,' the poets Anna Akhamatova. Osip Madelstam, Boris Pasternak  and Marina Tsvetayeva.  Or Spain's Franco who undoubtedly had Frederico Garcia Lorca murdered, Chile's Pinochet who persecuted Pablo Neruda and the prisoner / poets of Guantanamo Prison, someof whom are teenagers.   What is it about the elusive ' singing ' poets-remember Auden's line ' It is   a god who sings' - that so threatens dictators and tyrannical leaders of nations?  Whatever it is ,  Platowarned parents about poets who do not understand what they write and suggested leaders of nations? Whatever it is, Platowarned parents about poets who go notunderstand what they write and suggested in his  ' 'Republic'  where he sets forth his Utopia, that they keep their children away from them.
    Despite Plato's prestigious warnings, I continue to write lyrics ( at my best) , and to teach in pursuit of the elusive lyrics which are in five books of poetry : The orange and other Poems, Press- 22, John Laursen, publisher;  Twenty-One Waking Dreams, Trout Creek Press, Lawrence Hawkins, publisher; John Bennett, publisher; Travelling on the Great Wheel , Gardyloo Press, Jogn Bennett, publisher; Reading the Stones; New and Selected Poems, Press-22, and Poetry Enterprises; and finally, The ladder of Desire, Pygmy Forest Press, Leonard Cirino, publisher.  Since first being published in The Massachusetts Review in the 1960's , I have  continued to sent out poems which have found homes in well over 70 literary mgazines.   Anthologies include the first issue of Doctor Generosity's Press, which included Diane Wakoski.
    The founding of an international poetry anthology To Topos with  its first issue in 1997, and which continues to this day has energized and amazed me because ( like the lyric) I cannot see how it has survives, but it has, and so have I .

     Roger Weaver 
      taught Poetry in the English Depatment of Oregon State University for over 30 years . ( December 2007) 
           ( page 476 )


                                                                  Remarks on Flowers of Love
                                                            Be Davison Herrera 

     The pupose  of the Vietnamese International Poetry Society is to introduce all people in Vietnamese Culture and Arts Pratices through Poetry.   The member's hope is to tie bonds of our planet, our fragile island home, inspite of the fact that we live in a world made unsafe by ware and terrorism.   The Society's President, Nhu Hoa  Sinh Quang Le states.' We hope  The Flowers ol Love will help to bring Love  and Peace ( in mind) for everyone' through enjoying reading the biennial anthologies as well as of publications of the V.I.P.S. Press.
      The Vietnamese literary tradition is ancient, influcend over the years by both Chinese and French literary forms.  Its classical form, for example, used rigid form of versification similar to that of Chinese poetic.  Hovewer, Vietnamese poetry has never been static and is often sung, which intensifies its many levels of meaning.   Many highly respected Vietnamese poets have written in Chinese and French, as well as Eastern  and Western concepts.
     Flovers of Love include  work from 4 continents : Asia, Europe, North nad Central Africa and North America.  Within this global context, overseas .
      Vietnamese poets from Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Swetzerland, Norway, Australia, Saigon are respected .
    The entire Flower of Love series  is graced by passionate attention to the delicate range of human emotions.  This latest addition maintains that focus, offering the reaer yet another glimpse of intricacies intertwined with essence .

   Be Davison Herrera
  Associate Editor, V.I.P.S. Press


                                                 Remarque sur Fleurs  d' Amour
                                                                 Ali Amaoui

        Ce receuil de poèmes s' intitule Fleurs d' Amour  .  Il mérite un tel nom.  Celui qui le feuillette, le parcours ou le lit à tête reposée ou à sa guise, y trouvera de belles fleurs de toutes sortes.   Ce qui augmente le charme de ses fleurs si variées, c'est avant tout, leurs couleurs et  vicaces, le parfum exquis qu' elles exhalent et surtout leur provenance.
      Ces  fleurs d' amour  viennent de quatres coins du monde: la plupart sont bien sur vietnamiennes, leur beauté, leur magie évocatrice, leur musique si douce nous imprègnent de l' âme vietnamienne pleine de délicatesse et d 'une rare sensibilté.
    À lire tous ces poèmes, on aborde le jardin enchanté des muses, un paradis terrestre où le verbe se fait fleurs exhalent mille parfums sonores pour embellir notre monde .
     Vibrant et sincère homage soit rendu à tous ces poètes;  à Sinh Quang Le  vaillant soldat et fils ainé de Muses, grâces à qui le present Fleurs d' Amour a pu voir le jour... Sans vouloir blesser sa modeste, le travail qu'il  fait pour la poésie et les poètes est grandiose, le présent florilège en parle éloquement.
     Dans notre monde actuel, livré à ses plus vieux démons de haines et destruction, l' humanité désemparée et menacée, ne trouve rien de plus rassurant, rien de plus beau que de se voir offrir des fleurs d' amour!  Quand cela vient des Coeurs sincères et paisibles, le rêve de tous sera surement réalisé: Paix Pour Tous. Amen !

    Professor Ali Amaoui
   Poète-écrivain tunisien 
   Lauréate de l'Académie francaise
   Gafsa, Tunisie ( North Africa )


                                                      Remarks on Flowers of Love , Vol.1-98
                                                                        Dennis Schmitz, Ph.D

     First of all , let me congratulate you in fourth anniversary of the Vietnamese Amateur Poetry Society's founding.  Thank you for inviting me  to join you today - this First International Poetry Convention in a grand way to celebrate the occasion.
     Poetrry makes us worthy of the beauties of the world. If we have suffered, poetry can be our healing, I felt that way about many of the poems in Flowers in Love , the anniversary volume which commemorates the founding of V.A.P.S.  For example, the desperate voyage from the homeland that so many had to take, which Hương Nam speak about her poem  Small, No-Name Boats.  Are also the voyages of life itself.  She says ' There were no lights / no food / no drinking water.../  Not even a drop for their life / So many died silently in the ocean ' - what  a poweful way to embody the  limitless journeying humans must do !  How meaningless life would sem if we  not able to talk back to our fates !
    Flowers of Love has many poems which I 've found memorable.  Making a new home is painfulbecause  one must at the same time keep what one has always been - otherwise, one is faithless and a liar.  Many of the poets are caught in that paradox. In  his poem A kind of Folower for Vietnam,
Nguyen Phuc Song Huong longs for awareness, his memory and his pain, in recognizing the sort of flower that represents an exile' s situation. ' I asked my friends if they want another / ' A kind of 
perennial.'   They answered / ' the one not sown in the ground / But nicely open in our torn soul .'
     Nhu Hoa Le Quang Sinh is ironic about the new nature of new freedom and the faults of the new country itself when he visits the symbol of the new country:' Leaving the  base of the Statue of
 Liberty, / as if I were falling from the moon / between reality and dream; between good and 
evil ; / law and justice.' It makes onr morally dizzy to consider.
    Thu Van, Pham Ngoc, Ho Mong Thiep, and Le van Ba  - all realize  thet memory can sustain them.
'Confined for over half of my life / My hair faded from counterless ups and down, / A migrant bird of freedom, I long for space / Before you can await my return, be courageous to say good-bye.' 
Thu Van says, addressing native country.
     Thanh Thanh 's wisdom directs our vision in several poems. In the poems 'The Year 2000 ', he suggest that we are citizens of the world, and our self-reliance, the quality which make us humain, will carry us through. ' But anywhere on the globe, in any event ,/ There will always be conscience, common sense.' He promises. The poem is so full of hope.
     Our own wishes the year 2000 should be : not to deny ourself any emotion, or anyone else's pain, to continue to love the intriguing otherness of many culture - let us be the baggageless travelers poets must be.  Thank you .

    Professor Dennis Schmitz, Ph.D
    Poet Laureate of California, USA

                                                    (  from SAIGON POST -  Westminster, CA - No 144  Sept. 14- 1998 )


                                                                               Liatitia
                                                                              Alain Piat 

                                                    Il pleut dans la vallée coulent les larmes, 
                                         Nous pouvons bien prier, nous sommes sans armes,
                                         Je suis resté lontemps sur son lit d' hôpital,
                                         À côté de cette chose qui avait mal, 
                                        Je ne sais pas combien de temps dure toujours, 
                                        Si s' arrête la vie quand se lève un beau nuage,
                                        L'Enfant est partie sur une grande image, 
                                        Je n'ai gardé pour moi  que l' ombre du passé,
                                        Comme tous les rêves qui sont effacés, 
                                        Je peux toujours marcher chercher le silence, la paix,
                                        Il y aura toujours ces ondes, ces frissons, 
                                        Qui viennent murmurer, dans mon coeur, un prénom,
                                        Il faut que ce repos souffre du silence 
                                        Pour que chaque monde reste sans distance.
                                        Les souries d' enfants sont la thérapie 
                                        Des marques d' attention qui restent dans l' oublie.
                                        Il  nous faut pour vivre un peu d' espérance
                                       Même quand les regrets meurent dans l' enfance.
                                       J' au1rai voulu donner ma vie contre son sort.
                                        Mon Destin dans tes mains est plus fort que la mort.
                                       Sur chaque monatgne tombera la neige:
                                        Chaque flacon : une notre de solfège.
                                               ALIAS PIAT
                                                                                Paris

                                                           Liatitia 
                                                           Alian Piat

                                Rain and tears, they fall to the ground 
                                No prayer of mine can slow them down. 
                                I stood alone at his hospital bed 
                                watching the suffering and pain. 
                                How long to wait foe the end of this  fight ?
                                I see the night extinguish his earthly light.
                                The child is gone without a sound 
                                Joining the angles on their special cloud.
                                I see his shadow still about 
                                 Keeping company with the phantoms of the past.
                                 I walk in the woods, 
                                 Seeking out their silence, their loneliness.
                                But there remain the shadows of the past 
                                that whisper in my heart a familiar name.
                                This slumber demands also my silence
                                So that the world remains in  its place.
                                Another child's  smile brings relief 
                                and recalls past moments of joy.
                                To live, we need hope
                                Even if our regress soon fade away.
                                I would have traded life for life 
                                But fate is stronger than I.
                                Snow fulls on the mountain
                                Each flake a musical note.

                                    ALAIN PIAT ( Paris)
                                    translated by FRITZ BALKAU from Australia

                                                Liatitia 
                                               Alain Piat

                               Cơn mưa nước mắt đổ mau 
                               Lời kinh vang vọng nguyện cầu Ơn Trên 
                               Hằng giờ tôi đứng cạnh em
                               Nằm trên giường bệnh rỉ rền cơn đau 
                               Làm sao biết được bao lâu
                               Nếu đời kết thúc hôm sau đâu ngờ
                               Thiên thần cất cánh đêm mơ
                               Dáng hình để lại cõi thơ em về 
                               Ôm ấp hình bóng mộng mê 
                               Một thời qua khứ xóa đi mất rồi
                               Lang thang nơi chốn  núi đồi 
                               Tôi tìm tĩnh lặng cho đời bình an 
                               Nhưng còn nghe tiếng thở than 
                               Thì thầm tên họ: Li -Tian mất rồi !
                               Nỗi đau an nghỉ không lời 
                               Để cho thế giới mọi người gần nhau
                               Nụ cười con trẻ nhiệm mầu 
                               Chữa lành cơn bệnh quên sầu tâm tư 
                               Nuối tiếc tuổi trẻ phù du 
                               Sống trong hy vọng đời dù ra sao
                               Muốn đem sinh mạng đổi trao 
                               Mà rồi số phận xen vào nghiệt thay
                               Thôi đành định mệnh trao tay
                               Tử thần khuất phục em bay về trời
                               Nỗi buồn núi phủ tuyết rơi 
                               Mỗi nụ tuyết trắng một lời nhạc ru !

                                                          ALAIN PIAT- Paris - September 2002
                                   bản việt ngữ: NHƯ HOA LÊ QUANG SINH 

           ( cụm hoa tình yêu / flower of love / fleurs d' mour -
             published by  The Vietnamese International Poetry Society, USA, 2008)