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14th Anniversary Edition, Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Six Nov-Dec 2023.
Expression of summer love, poem by Ly Thai Phuong.
Translated from Vietnamese to English by Nguyen Thuy Hoa. Edited by John Liddy.
Expression of summer love
Summer, keep burning more fire
To remind the day we fell in love
Don’t be blue when the sun burns red
Summon the sunlight to expose the pain…
Don’t blame the hot summer day
When the silent tree becomes still life at noon
Though I can’t hope to find what is lost
Let it be, the wind will change the season!
Love song of bridges
Could it be that bridges are just for people to cross
Could it be that we will meet again there
How many bridges in this world bear love locks?
Love oaths weigh on time
Could it be that I will see you again
In the midst of endless days, in a moment’s pause
Could it just vibrate between beats
Down where the river roared and flowed
Could it be forever like that?
Bridges are just for people to cross endlessly
Like a river that never flows back
And the bridge builder himself went far away.
Flower and leaf
To forget a love, needs a new love
Even if it’s crueler, even if I raise my head in a hurry
Even the field of flowers blooms and fades
Like a canopy of leaves changing colour from season to season!
Paradox
Once being love sick
I sat playing with the wind
Suddenly realized the storm
Can bring back peace
Once being forgotten
Buried in sleepless nights
Realized that after bitterness
Would be sweeter
Once my hand let go
Coldly and didn’t look back
But the loneliness
Clung to the footsteps
Once I missed a heartbeat
Plunged into the wave
Realized that sunstroke (*)
Made struggling for a lifetime
(*) in Vietnam, saying “sunstroke” means you crush someone.