Teenagers release balloons printed with poems at last year’s Vietnamese Poetry Day at the Literature Temple in Hanoi (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Many critics and poets attending a workshop on contemporary poetryin Hanoi on February 27 agreed: the country is home to many poets, but few goodpoems.
“Never beforethere have been so many poets and poetry fans,” said poet Vu Quan Phuong.
There are dozensof thousands of poetry writers throughout the country.
“There are aboutfour thousand poetry collections published each year,” he said. “Poetry hasbecome an elegant spiritual creative endeavour, which should be respected andencouraged. Composing poems has become a passion of the whole community, butfew poetry reciting galas have been organised.”
Big-namepublishers are no longer interested in printing poetry collections. That’s whypoets themselves pay their own money to publish their work and struggle to selltheir books.
“So our poetry isdeveloping or descending? Some people said the more poetry is popular, the moretrivial it is. We have seen no advanced features in contemporary poetry but noone wants to believe it is descending,” he said.
Poet Nguyen VietChien held that in the last year, poetry “lost the harvest” as there were nomain prizes given to poets by the Vietnam Writers’ Association, the Hanoi Writers’Association and HCM City Writers’ Association.
“There are too fewgood poems while too many bad ones,” he said. “That’s why poetry collectionswere printed but could not be sold, just for handing out as souvenirs.
“Many people saidthe golden time of Vietnamese poetry has passed and the poetry era hasgradually disappeared, replaced by a technologically advanced era with theglobal integration of telecommunications technology and mass media,” Chiensaid.
“I have a sensethat some young writers have focused on exploring strange things to expresswhat others had not dared or avoid to mention,” commented poet Thanh Thao.“Even so, there remains a silent gap in poetry. Many writers tend to composepoems on the hard life of poor people in rural areas, while poems on urbanrhythms seem to overwhelm the tranquility and peace of countryside.”
“While many poetslike writing in new genres, the content of poems are not diversified,” headded. “No writers edge towards taboo topics in poetry. Love poetry seems to bemore popular while there are fewer and fewer poems on burning issues.”
From a critic’sangle, poet Vu Quan Phuong said he has found almost no border between popularcomposing and advanced composing.
Poet Chien saidthe professional poetry genre should be more creative, renewed and highquality; otherwise the popular poetry genre may become the main stream incontemporary literature.
However, manyother poets highly appreciated today’s Vietnamese poetry.
“Vietnamese poetryis moving,” said poet Vuong Trong. “Thousands of poetry collections publishedevery year do not express the poets’ personal feelings; they discuss thecountry’s issues.
“A poem by teacherTran Thi Lam from the central province of Ha Tinh publishedonline titled Dat Nuoc Minh Ngo Lam Phai Khong Anh? (OurCountry is Strange, Isn’t It?) has been read, shared by millions of people notbecause it contains super artistic feature but because it discusses what peoplethink and are interested in,” he said.
Poet Mai Nam Thangsaid he expects poems to discuss big issues and human interests.
“Poetry shouldbear the national spirit and deep humanity to find the power to live and placeto take root,” he said. “That requires the poet first of all should be acitizen with high responsibility. His or her country and community are among hisor her biggest concerns,” Thang said.
Poet Huu Thỉnh,Chairman of the Vietnam Writers’ Association, said he highly values opinions atthe workshop.
“We shouldnot worry if there are too many poems composed because the movement itself willself-select,” he said. “New poems may not good but good poems are always new.Good poems should conquer people and stay inside people. Otherwise, the trendis just a modern fad and will soon be wiped away.”
Thỉnh said thereare new things inside very old things.
“Literature ingeneral and poetry in particular should become national culture,” he said.“That’s the noble destination that poets should aim to.”
The workshop isamong the first activities for a series of events in the framework of theVietnam Poetry Day between February 27 and March 2 throughout the country.Various activities will be organised at Hanoi’s Literature Temple onMarch 1.
On the same day, theHCM City Writers Association will hold a workshop to introduce five books onMau Than Offensive in 1968 written by historic witnesses who directly andindirectly joined the fight.
An exchangemeeting among members of 20 poetry clubs throughout the city will be held,where they will recite poems and camp together. A highlight of the programmewill be the Young Poetry Playground gathering young writers like Minh Dan, PhanThanh Binh, Tran Le Khanh and To Minh Yen.
Other exchange meetings will be organised on March 2. They are expectedto gather thousands of poets and audiences with the main theme of praising veteranpoets who joined the Mau Than Offensive in 1968 like Hoai Vu, Van Le and TrieuTu Truyen.-VNA
