Wednesday, July 31, 2013

My Own Favorite Poems

I believe we writers have favorite pieces of our own writings, be they poems, essays, short stories, plays, novels, and so on. I myself have quite a few of my own published poems that are my favorites. Here are some that I'd like to share with you.

1)
illusional
dreams come and go
and hard
to hold them tight
like flowers in a mirror

(Chrysanthemum 12, 2012)

2)
a nondrinker
I don't know the joy
of Li Bai who drowned
his worries in wine . . .
I sip my second coffee

(A Hundred Gourds 2:2 March 2013)

3)
gravel path
I kick at the pebbles
so small
yet, quietly carrying
our weight

(GUSTS No. 17)

4)
Tet flower market
revives in Saigon
whose old charm
melts the Hanoi sun . . .
Dharma Wheel

(Atlas Poetica Number 12, Summer 2012)(It's part of a sequence)

5)
my pen
dips into shadows
of the boat people . . .
endless I search for words
to paint their ordeal

(Lynx 27:3 October, 2012)

6)
one drop of mercy
from Kuan Yin . . .
rain after the drought

(Haiku News, Vol. 1 No. 8)

7)
a reflection
across multiple rivers
my heritage

(Notes from the Gean 3:2 September, 2011)

The seven tanka and haiku posted here reveal quite a bit of me as I touch on a variety of subject matters.