HAPPY THANKSGIVING NOVEMBER 28, 2013

A THANKSGIVING SENTIMENT FOR VIETNAMESE IMMIGRANTS:  A TRIBUTE TO US 
(US  is the United States, and  US is also We)

Ta on la` nho' on
Nho' on la nho' nuo'c
Nho' nuo'c vi nuo'c ma^'t
Nuo'c ma^'t:  do`i di da^n
Di da^n vi` ma^'t nuo'c
Ta. o*n nguo`i, thuong tha^n
Thuong than la thuong nuoc
Thuong nuoc la thuong dan

DNN Nov. copyright 2013 
Simplicity is a poetic gem disguised as the thrift of expression

My heart is in the homeland, my heart is not here
Homeland, treasure, or souvenir?
From Mayflower to the flimsy Vietnamese boat:
Life in exile, or memory afloat?

My heart is indeed Homeland, it is never here
Pacific to Atlantic, in triumph remains fear?
Fear of exile, fear of memory? 
My heart is myself, Homeland reigns in me!
Where Homeland reigns, never, never fear
To Homeland I shed...my one and only tear 

For the U.S., too, or just for US?
That one tear our last, and also our first

---
Trai tim toi nam trong to quoc, trai tim toi khong co o day
Co^' quoc, kho tang, hay ky niem?
Tu chuyen tau Mayflower cho den con thuyen mong manh cua nguoi Viet ti nan
Doi ly huong, hay ky uc bo^`ng be^`nh? 

Trai tim toi la co quoc, chang bao gio o day
Tu Thai Binh qua den Dai Tay, trong chien thang van con niem run so?
So. kiep tha huong, so luon ky uc? 
Trai tim la chinh toi do, co quoc ngu tri trong  toi
Noi co quoc ngu tri se khong bao gio co niem run so
Toi gui den co quoc giot le nay, doc nhat

Cho luon nuoc My? hay chi cho chung toi? 
Giot le cuoi cung, cung se la giot le bat dau...

(chu Homeland toi dich co khi la to^? quoc va co khi la co^' quo^'c; neu chi du`ng "to^? quoc" thi se pha?n lai loi the pha'p ly khi nguoi Viet ty nan tro thanh cong dan nuoc My~. Theo y bai tho thi trong trai tim nguoi ty nan Viet Nam, co^' quoc se luon luon la bong hinh to quoc)

DNN Nov. copyright 2013

On the occasion of Thanksgiving Dinner November 2013:  

Collage The Banquet WND C 2012

DAISIES FOR NOVEMBER

Cu'c trong lo. ki'nh nguo`i mo* Cu'c
Cu'c gia^.n nguo`i hay Cu'c nho' nguo`i??? 
Nguoi da que^n chua, loi Cuc hen? 
Ca^`m ba*`ng nhu* nuo'c do^? va`o kho*i
Mai sau suo*ng xuo^'ng phai ma`u Cu'c
Nuo'c chuye^?n thanh so^ng, lu.t qua~ng do`i 
Suong bie^'n tha`nh mua, mua nuo'c lu~
Kho'c du`m cho Cu'c, co^' nha^n oi!!!  

DNN Nov. 2013
Chu thich:  Hoa`ng Cu'c la te^n tinh yeu cua thi nhan Viet Nam Han Mac Tu

Daisies in Glass Vase enamel & pastel 

WND C 2013

Daisies in Glass Vase enamel & pastel digitally inverted

WND Copyright 2013

[post bai tho ve Hoa Cuc]

TO^'NG BIE^.T HA`NH

Back to the Classic:  

SOLITUDE -- ON MY OWN một cõi một mình

ON MY OWN, FROM LES MISERABLES: A musical performance and visual presentation of Uyen Nicole Duong (Nhu-Nguyen)'s L'ART BRUT featuring the theme of SOLITUDE:  (uploaded from Youtube) CLICK HERE:

ON MY OWN
mo^.t co~i mo^.t mi`nh 

DNN C1996

Artwork by Uyen Nicole Duong copyright 2013

Video by Tu Chau

TRIBUTE TO THE CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS OF VIETNAMESE AMERICA

ARTIST AND CONTINENT,  WITHOUT BORDER:  
THE ART OF VIETNAMESE AMERICA

Yes, there is America, and there is Vietnamese America. 

      I don't mean Little Saigon in Orange County. I mean the vision of the homeland in America held and kept by the few thinkers, writers and artists of Vietnamese descent, including those who, although they live here, have never left their home behind...Their spirit returns home via their art, in universal ways that transcend borders.  To many of them, home also harbors the memory that tears and sheds: fear, melancholy, regret, and the whole range of emotions that I call "the rain-tears of the soul."

      Years ago, at the University of Denver where I taught, I thought of honoring Mrs. Tang Thi Thanh Trai, a Vietnamese lawyer who occupied the first tenure-tracked teaching position in an ABA-accredited law school.  I grew up with an image of her as my self-made-women-in- the-law motivation.   Back to 1975, facing my career choices as a 17-year-old after the fall of Saigon, I did not know what I could have in the arts.  How about concert pianist, opera singer, Broadway performer, stage/film actress, ballet dancer/choreographer, oil-on-canvas painter, journalist/writer, playwright, and the list went on -- all the choices not available to the little girls from urban Saigon or war-torn Vietnam, who have boarded the plane. Being new to America and having no mentor, I did not know that the list of career choices in the arts could even exist!

     In the decade that followed, I ended up choosing law because of what I  called the immigrant's burden.  This choice of practicality carried with it the same noblesse oblige that had made me the head of  my class ("truo?ng lo*'p") all throughout my last three years at that Vietnamese all-girl school in Saigon (the high school that bears the name of Vietnam's national heroines).  Law was the choice of the brain rather than the heart.  My motivational factor for justifying this career choice (brought about by a sense of burden) was the image of the slender, short-haired Mrs. Trai (aka Mrs. Le Thanh Minh Chau, then provost of the University of Hue). Her image captured my imagination of the ideal self-made career woman , the day Ms. Trai appeared on Vietnamese TV  in the early 1970s...

        So, decades later, at the University of Denver, I was going to honor her as the motivational factor for all of us, Vietnamese women who chose law (and the few of us who chose law teaching). As it turned out, the plan was never materialized because of a simple reason:  Mrs. Trai does not want or need the event.  (And the  few Mrs. Trai's of our culture might or might not have chosen law for all of us who came after her -- those little girls of South Vietnam who had seen her image on TV and held on to it, the way I have...

      For those little girls who have given the law all of themselves -- in exchange for, not money, nor status, but instead, their sense of noblesse oblige that I have tried to hold on to through the years of my youth, I must now poignantly ask:  what have they received in return, for the burden they each silently carry in their soul, when they chose law as the road less travelled for the first wave of Vietnamese immigrants into this country?

       When I resigned myself to the fact that I should not try to honor Ms. Trai, my childhood idol, I felt such a loss.  With that realization, sitting in my faculty office at the University of Denver, I decided to honor, not Mrs. Trai via a University-sponsored program, but rather, with my own pen in my own private space.  My tribute went to a different person all together, some one who did not resemble even an ounce of Mrs. Trai.  I decided to write a long poem and dedicate it to the dead man who on his own carried the real burden of exile:  he was the Kinh Kha of Vietnamese youth. The young man belonged to those generations of Vietnamese who were sent to Universities abroad with the aim to return home to give war-torn Vietnam their sense of noblesse oblige, "nghia vu va phung su."  The young man, Kinh Kha of our youth, returned home to die a tragic death in his homeland.  His body has never been returned to his loved ones.  For me, he confirmed my long-held belief:  the death penalty cannot, and should not be given, to political dissidents, if the values of liberty and democracy are to be respected in a civilized society. 

[LINK TO THE tvb POEM]

         But today, I want to do something different.  I want to do this for myself, as I look back at the could-have-been's -- the career choices I never had although America was supposed to be the promised land.  I decide to give my personal tribute to a few people whose creative forces and talent I have come to know, because, in my view, the following pieces of creative arts and performances belong to the shining light that must have come from the heart.   In that shining light of Vietnamese America rests terribly a sense of solitude, yet wonderfully the joy of creation.  These pieces belong to one Vietnamese America that has existed for my 39 years in this country.  Confined as a lawyer, I have created this image of Vietnamese America for myself, and in it, I put my endless pursuit of the arts. I have made that pursuit an endless journey that has cost me the epitome of financial and career success that I could have had in the law.  Nhu ke lan hon da nhoc nhan tren suon nui, Toi deo mang con duong thien ly cua rieng toi.  In that shining light of Vietnamese America rests terribly a sense of solitude, yet wonderfully the joy of creation.  

        Below are my tributes:

1) THE INTROSPECTIVE POET OF OUR TIME:  Tribute to the Vietnamese poet To Thuy Yen, who spent 13 years in the Vietnamese gulag, after which home-sweet-home, notion of the motherland, became "the visceral fear" of existence (the poet's own choice of words), so America to this man of wonderful verbal and poetic skills becomes the draining conquest of that terrifying fear (where fear is the terror itself).  In my opinion, To Thuy Yen is THE POET OF OUR TIME, the generations following Vu Hoang Chuong.  But, to me, TTY is more than Vu Hoang Chuong, because he has brought to Vietnamese modern poetry images of That-Road-Less-Travelled (Robert Frost) or the Vietnamese myth of Syssiphus: For a poet-philosopher, it's the Inward Journey of Thoughts and Sufferings, the "Etre-En-Route" of human existence.  That road, to TTY, is the way homeward ("Ve^`"), when the Self has become Bankrupt.  With his poetry, the intellectual poet TTY has brought us "Vinh-Du-Lam-Than-Cua-Kiep-Nguoi"  (the Honor of Sufferings).  (By Intellectual, I mean the journey of Thoughts that the Poet engages himself in).   

Quen, la., ba.n, thu`, chung gia^'c ngu?
Chung lo*`i thu*o*ng tie^'c kha*'c tre^n bia 
To-Thuy-Yen

[link to TTY poetry online]

2) THE SONG THAT CROSSES CULTURAL BORDERS:  Tribute to the semi-classical music of Ngo Minh Tri, a songwriter from my generation. His album brought me the "Song-of-Happiness" in the semi-classial genre.  The album invigorates a new dimension for Vietnamese modern music, and although Ngo Minh Tri thinks that American jazz is the breakthrough for him, I think the quality of Tri's music lies in his ability to make beautiful melodies.  In "Happiness,"  Tri combines a little bit of Jazzy modern harmony with a simplified, linear melodious expression that reminds me of Chopin's Tristesse.  The new dimension that Tri brought to Vietnamese music in America is indeed as old as the chagrin of Chopin's soul, jazzed up (if you will) into an expression not found in all that repertoire called Pham Duy and Trinh Cong Son and Van Cao and Cung Tien and the likes of them, i.e., the favorites of Vietnamese (so far).  

     This song called Happiness written by Tri, a relatively unknown musician (unknown to many Vietnamese but, by now, known to my concept of Vietnamese America), has motivated me to choreograph a modern dance based on the awakening of a Vietnamese woman.  In the dance, she delivers to herself, at the dawn of day, the monologue that speaks the same sadness found in Tri's Song of Hanh Phuc.  When darkness gives way to the first touch of sunlight, there is the quiet joy of celebrating the first (and perhaps last) sun ray that warms up our vision of Vietnamese America, at the beginning and the end of our journey for survival.  Our survival is against cruel history and politics, against an external world, as well as against ourselves.   Ours has been a journey full of sorrow and anguish (the same "Honor of Sufferings" found in the introspective poetry of To-Thuy-Yen). On that journey, the smallest trace of sunlight will become the happiness of a lifetime...In reading my novella Postcards from Nam and seeing with me the journey of Boat People, commenter Tran Van Tong of Paris compared my "trace of sunlight" to Rene Char's "the instant light of being." ("Si nous habitons un eclair, it est le coeur de l'eternel --If we live in that light, it is the eternal heart: Neu ta cu tru trong tia chop, thi no se tro thanh trung tam/trai tim cua su vinh cuu").   

[LINK TO TVTONG'S COMMENTARY AT VIET THUC]

    So, what is the fate of the artist, then?  Ours is the kind of self-journey that repeats itself, always, until we again and again try to reach that small trace of sunlight, when our warm heart can rest at peace in a place called homeland, just as Chopin rested in peace when he asked for his heart to be brought back to Poland and buried in the soil of his homeland.

Tim qua chinh chien mot thoi
Tim qua tang toc mot doi
Tim dau noi be dau
Tim quanh xuong trang phau
Tim dau qua cach ngan qua tran troi...
Tim trong dau xot da vang
Tim noi muon thu xa ngan...
(lyric for Hanh Phuc written by Ngo-Minh-Tri)

3) THE POET OF SEPARATION AND VIETNAMESE CLASSIQUE: THE BEGINNING OF EXILE IN THAM TAM'S TONG BIET HANH:  

Link to Tham Tam;

In appreciation of Tham Tam's timeless poem, I myself have  composed two versions of my own Tong Biet Hanh: 

[Link to DNN's 2 versions of Tong Biet Hanh]

4) THE PERFORMING ARTIST OF OUR TIME -- PERFORMING WITH THE HOMELAND'S SOUL:  Ton Nu Le Ba
[to be drafted]

[link to viet thuc] her performance of HO TRUONG 

5) THE UNLUCKY POET:  NGUYEN TAT NHIEN: 
[to be drafted about his life and death]
[link to the best of NTN]

6) THE WOMAN THROUGH WHOM WE CAN ALL SEE OURSELVES:  Last but not least, I give my tribute to Nhu-Thuong.  Here is a fellow Vietnamese woman who has chosen to write Vietnamese poetry to relieve herself of the hardships of her life, from Vietnam to America.  Her poetry is classic sublimation. Daughter of a political prisoner, for many years in her native Vietnam, she was not able to pursue the education she desired and deserved.  America brought that about and afforded her the chance to realize the vision she had at the tender age of 14: she dreamt that she would make poems and publish them.  Now, in America, she calls herself Nhu-Thuong, perhaps the unintended counter-ego of my own birthname Nhu-Nguyen.  "Nhu Thuong" means "like love or compassion," and my name Nhu-Nguyen means "May All Your Wishes Come True."  May all your wishes come true when all wishes are made out of love and compassion.  Many Vietnamese women will see themselves through her, the woman who calls herself Nhu-Thuong, likening herself to love and compassion.  And her poetry speaks exactly just that.  In fact, all of us see ourselves in her, as the woman reaches for her peace, Nabokov's refuge of art and my Postcards from Nam.  She found that in Vietnamese poetry. Like TTY, Nhu-Thuong seeks in poetry a way homeward, via the simple "six-eight" form originated with Vietnam's folk songs.  But, unlike the exhausted poet-philosopher TTY, for Nhu-Thuong, poetry also creates a different world.  Her ornate and sometimes archaic language of the six-eight poetry offers her the bliss we all lack in real life, each in our own way.  My tribute to Nhu-Thuong lies less in her poetic means than in her compassionate end:  what makes Nhu-Thuong herself is not so much her six-eight form, but, rather, her compassionate soul -- her substance, as shown in her following piece of prose:    

[link to nhuthuong sweater on a snowy day]

     To all of the poets and artists above, it matters not whether i know them or they know me.  My Vietnamese America is for them just as much as it is for me.

       Unlike Chopin's Poland where the composer's heart rested, my vision of Vietnamese America does not have to be territory.  The territory is...myself!  Through these personal tributes, I wish to thank all the nameless Vietnamese refugees who have made it to shore, those who have chosen to die, those who have died without a choice to live, and those very few real musicians, painters and poets who have gone on to create despite the shackles of life and the fate of exile.  They all have reaffirmed the place of Vietnamese America for me via their own force of creativity.  I want to believe that the few artists mentioned above hold on to their creative forces, not for fame or fortune, but only for the need to create in itself.  Perhaps I might have just projected myself onto them, but one fact remains:  With them, I share the bond of culture. It is our bond.  

That's why in the following piece of fiction, I speak the voice of a Vietnamese woman who searches for love.  At the final point of destination, she finds that cultural bond, even though for her, the bond -- in the form of romantic love sought by all men and women -- has become an illusion of peace.  

Click here:

OF CULTURE, BOND, AND BONDAGE

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Mo^.t kinh nghie^.m va*n ho'a qua' de.p, chuye^'n di Nga cu?a to^i qua chuong tri`nh Fulbright, da~ dem to^i de^'n vu`ng da^'t cua Nga Hoa`ng Alexander De^. Nha^'t, que^ hu*o*ng cho^n nhau ca*'t ro^'n cu?a va*n ha`o Anton Chekhov.

A DANCE CRITIQUE Bai` Phe^ Bi`nh Ve^` Nghe^. Thua^.t Vu~

In the following dance critique, Wendy Nicole Duong uses her descriptive language to give us a view of what happened on stage, at the Outdoor Miller Theater in Houston. Viet Thuc Forum uses the image of Martha Graham and Modern Dancers to accompany Ms. Duong's comments. Click on the link below:

http://www.vietthuc.org/2013/08/10/a-dance-critique-the-best-of-texas-contemporary-dance-performed-at-the-outdoor-miller-theater-houston-texas/

WENDY N. DUONG SINGING VIETNAMESE MUSIC IN THE SOPRANO RANGE

The song Huong Xua by Cung Tien (Reminiscence of A Lost Scent) was sung twice, the second time in English lyrics written by the vocal artist herself. The tape was made from the living room of the accompanying pianist; it was only a practice tape, and one can hear the singer turning her music sheets. The pianist played Chopin's Nocturne as part of the accompaniment written by Cung Tien in the late 1950s, before the singer was born...This was meant to be a sweet dedication to the young days of Cung Tien and his musical creativity influenced by classical music, rare for Vietnamese songwriters of his time...

In the following youtube playlist, a listener named Nguyen Ngoc Minh has put together a play list including the song by Cung Tien above with Hon Vong Phu (Statue of the Awaiting Wife), a choral symphony by Composer Le Thuong. Here, Wendy N. Duong sang the first two parts of the symphony as a soloist, together with recital of poetry exerpts from the Vietnamese classique Chinh Phu Ngam (Song of the Warrior's Wife) .  Again, she sang parts of both pieces in English.  Not many people know this, but Wendy is a librettist and one of her favorite tasks is to make English lyrics for  those Vietnamese songs that she likes.

CLICK ON LINK BELOW:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDC83DD2A04EACB9E

Victoria de Angeles singing Plasir D'Amour

Woman in Love

Enamel & markers on paper 

DNN copyright 2010

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AMERICA

When my daisies rage into their wrath, they can turn into fireworks
Delicate  petals can become streaks of starry lights
Celebrating the birth of a dynamic nation, my home away from home
DNN July 4 2013

 Wrath of Daisies version 1

enamel & markers on paper 

DNN copyrighted June 2013

  Wrath of Daisies version 2

enamel & markers on paper digitally inverted

DNN copyrighted June 2013

In the following versions of my firework daisies, a glaze of pastel chalk (my left-over eyeshadows) has been applied over the background to mute the brightness of enamel

  Wrath of Daisies version 3 

enamel, markers on paper, and pastel chalk 

DNN copyrighted June 2013

  

Wrath of Daisies version 4 

enamel, markers on paper, and pastel chalk  digitally inverted

DNN copyrighted June 2013

COMPARE my wrath of firework daisies to real photography done on real chrysanthemums from the real garden of one really talented Ms. Pham Hien. Not only did she photograph these flowers, she planted and took care of them as well: 

photography by Pham Hien C2013 

FOR VIETNAMESE READERS: CHO 30 THANG TU

TA VỀ

 

Ta về một bóng trên đường lớn

Thơ chẳng ai đề vạt áo phai

Sao bỗng nghe đau mềm phế phủ

Mười năm đá cũng ngậm ngùi thay

 

Vĩnh biệt ta mười năm chết dấp

Chốn rừng thiêng ỉm tiếng nghìn thu

Mười năm mặt sạm soi khe nước

Ta hóa thân thành vượn cổ sơ

 

Ta về qua những truông cùng phá

Nếp trán nhăn đùa ngọn gió may

Ta ngẩn ngơ trông trời đất cũ

Nghe tàn cát bụi tháng năm bay

 

Chỉ có thế trời câm đất nín

Ðời im lìm đóng ván xanh xao

Mười năm thế giới già trông thấy

Ðất bạc màu đi đất bạc màu

 

Ta về như bóng chim qua trễ

Cho vội vàng thêm gió cuối mùa

Ai đứng trông vời mây nước đó

Ngàn năm râu tóc bạc phơ phơ

 

Một đời được mấy điều mong ước

Núi lở sông bồi đã mấy ghi

Lịch sử ngơi đi nhiều tiếng động

Mười năm cổ lục đã ai ghi?

 

Ta về cúi mái đầu sương điểm

Nghe nặng từ tâm lượng đất trời

Cảm ơn hoa đã vì ta nở

Thế giới vui từ nỗi lẻ loi.

 

Tưởng tượng nhà nhà đang mở cửa

Làng ta ngựa đá đã qua sông

Người đi như cá theo con nước

Trống ngũ liên nôn nả gióng mừng

 

Ta về như lá rơi về cội

Bếp lửa nhân quần ấm tối nay

Chút rượu hồng đây xin rưới uống

Giải oan cho cuộc biển dâu này

 

Ta khóc trả ơn đời máu chảy

Ruột mềm như đá dưới chân ta

Mười năm chớp bể mưa nguồn đó

Người thức mong buồn tận cõi xa

 

Ta về như hạt sương trên cỏ

Kết tụ sầu nhân thế chuyển đời

Bé bỏng thì cũng sinh, dị, diệt

Tội tình chi lắm nữa người ơi

 

Quán dốc hơi thu lùa nỗi nhớ

Mười năm người tỏ mặt nhau đây

Nước non ngàn dặm bèo mây hỡi

Ðành uống lưng thôi bát nước mời

 

Ta về như sợi tơ trời trắng

Chấp chới trôi buồn với nắng hanh

Ai gọi ai đi ngoài cõi vắng

Dừng chân nghe quặn thắt tâm can.

 

Lời thề buổi ấy còn mang nặng

Nên mắc tình đời cởi chẳng ra

Ta nhớ người xa ngoài cõi nhớ

Mười năm ta vẫn cứ là ta

 

Ta về như tứ thơ xiêu tán

Trong cõi hoang đường trắng lãng quên

Nhà cũ mừng còn nguyên mái, vách

Nhện giăng, khói ám, mối xông nền

 

Mọi thứ không còn ngăn nắp cũ

Nhà thương-khó quá sống thờ ơ

Giậu nghiêng, cổng đổ, thềm um cỏ

Khách cũ không còn khách mới thưa

 

Ta về khai giải bùa thiêng yểm

Thức dậy đi nào gỗ đá ơi

Hãy kể lại mười năm chuyện cũ

Một lần kể lại để rồi thôi

 

Chiều nay ta sẽ đi thơ thẩn

Thăm hỏi từng cây những nỗi nhà

Hoa bưởi, hoa tầm xuân có nở?

Mười năm, cây có nhớ người xa?

 

Ta về như đứa con phung phá

Khánh kiệt đời trong cuộc bể dâu

Mười năm, con đã già trông thấy

Huống mẹ cha đèn sắp cạn dầu

 

Con gẫm lại đời con thất bát

Hứa trăm điều một chẳng làm nên

Ðời qua lớp lớp tàn hư huyễn

Giọt lệ sương thầm khóc biến thiên

 

Ta về như tiếng kêu đồng vọng

Rau mác lên bờ đã trổ bông

Cho dẫu ngàn năm em vẫn đứng

Chờ anh như biển đã chờ sông

 

Ta gọi thời gian sau cánh cửa

Nỗi mừng giàn giụa mắt ai sâu

Ta về như máu ân tình chảy

Tự kiếp xưa nào tưởng lạc nhau

 

 

Ta về dẫu phải đi chân đất

Khắp thế gian này để gặp em

Ðau khổ riêng gì nơi gió cát

Thềm nhà bụi chuối khóc thâu đêm

 

Cây bưởi xưa còn nhớ trắng hoa

Ðêm chưa khuya quá hỡi trăng tà

Tình xưa như tuổi già không ngủ

Thức trọn, khuya từng nỗi xót xa

 

Ta về như giấc mơ thần bí

Tuổi nhỏ đi tìm một tối vui

Trăng sáng soi hồn ta vết phỏng

Trọn đời nỗi nhớ sáng khôn nguôi

Bé ơi, này những vui buồn cũ

Hãy sống đương đầu với lãng quên

Con dế vẫn là con dế ấy

Hát rong bờ cỏ giọng thân quen

 

Ta về như nước Tào khê chảy

Tinh đẩu mười năm luống nhạt mờ

Thân thích những ai giờ đã khuất

Cõi đời nghe trống trải hơn xưa

Người chết đưa ta cùng xuống mộ

Ðâu còn ai nữa đứng bờ ao

Khóc người, ta khóc ta rơi rụng

Tuổi hạc ôi ngày một một hao

Ta về như bóng ma hờn tủi

Lục lại thời gian kiếm chính mình

Ta nhặt mà thương từng phế liệu

Như từng hài cốt sắp vô danh

Ngồi đây nền cũ nhà hương hỏa

Ðọc lại bài thơ thuở thiếu thời

Ai đó trong hồn ta thổn thức

Vầng trăng còn tiếc cuộc rong chơi

Ta về như hạc vàng thương nhớ

Một thuở trần gian bay lướt qua

Ta tiếc đời ta sao hữu hạn

Ðành không trải hết được lòng ta.

Tô Thùy Yên

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