Writing from the Heart

We writers want to see our work published either in online or print journals. Before we get there, we need to write good poems, stories, essays. And, the joy of publication does not end in being read by people but in how it will take us: One thing leads to another. It happens to me with my poems. Four of my tanka have been selected for publication in Robert Epstein's new anthology Now This: Contemporary Poems of Beinnings, Renewals, and Firsts which will come out soon. How did I get the invitation from the editor? He liked one of my tanka published in Bottle Rockets #28 and contacted me. One thing leads to another.

Another bit of good news excites me further. I am one of the two winners of the 2012 Jerry Kilbride Memorial English-Language Haibun Contest. Yvonne Cabalona the Contest Coordinator is generous with her kind words. In the notificaion she wrote: " . . . In our very mobile society, there is always that longing for home, isn't there? That emotion resonates with all of us. . . ." My haibun that has won the second place touches on a universal theme that people of different cultures and backgrounds can relate to.

We don't have to strive to write to win. If we write from the heart, the writing itself will resonate with the reader. Our writing will shine.

Reflection, Reflection

How was your 2012? Mine was quite good for me as a writer. My Japanese short poetry was doing much better than I had expected. I even had enough published poems--haiku, haibun, tanka--altogether seventy-seven of them (dated from June, 2011 to October, 2012)--to be compiled into a Christmas gift book for friends. Something that I had never thought about at the beginning of this year.

As I am feeling stronger, in spite of the fact that I still don't feel one hundred percent back, I can plan ahead as I normally did in the past before my hospitalization. For two years, 2010-2012, I simply did whatever I felt up to doing when it came to writing. Now I can at least have a vision for my writing career.

Looking back, I am grateful that some editors are willing to work with me on my work to make my poems better; meanwhile, I have learned some things to improve my own writing. Help from editors is as important as the support from people who like my writing. When I come across such editors, I count my blessings.

Interestingly, my first published haibun Gifts in A Hundred Gourds (December, 2011) was about my mother to whom I am tremendously indebted. And my first published tanka also in A Hundred Gourds (December, 2011) was about my first day in America. It is as follows:

the first day
in my sponsor's backyard
I sought a four-leaf clover
but instead
I picked the dandlelion

It's been over two decades, I still remember that morning!

Stagnant Dialogue

Why do I use "stagnant" for dialogue, but not "dull," or "inactive," or "liveless"?  Because as you can imagine what happens to a pool of stagnant water--it does not flow, and worse, it stinks. As you can see, stagnant dialogue is dull, inactive, and liveless, and worse, it stifles the scene, not to mention moving the whole story forward.

Dialogue frustrated me the most when I was at graduate school learning how to write plays. as you know, dialogue is the essence, the most important building block, of a play. It took me lots of time and energy to read well-established playwrights' work, especially those who were praised for their snappy dialogue. At the time I didn't quite get what it meant. Now I fully understand what it is.

In novels, dialogue plays an important part, too. If the dialogue is stagnant, the scene will become dull and eventually will drag the story down; and you know what the reader will do when this happens--she will close the book and never return to it. Well, you will probably say, wait a minute, there are various factors that make the reader stop reading the book. True. Here is my point: every element in a novel has to be heeded. If you read a page full of talking heads whose speeches do not go anywhere, will you continue to read the novel? I won't.

My New Kind of Haibun

We writers always look for new ways to express ourselves. Words like experimental, innovative, avant-garde, you name it, are embraced by us writers, be it poetry, theatre, fiction, nonfiction. Recently, I have written two haibun which I believe can be called urban-fantasy haibun. Urban-fantasy haibun?  Yes, they are about real people who are dead and interact with each other or interact with the living. Don't they sound interesting? I think so. Because one piece has been accepted for publication by a journal in its next issue. I am very grateful to the team of editors, And I am very excited about the acceptance, not only because of the publication but because of a new way having opened up to me for writing haibun. I got the idea for these two haibun quite unexpectedly: one morning I woke up and an idea hit me like an attack; quickly I scribbled it down in a notebook before I forgot. For me, my poetry is the best when the muse comes to visit me out of the blue. Many of my published haiku, tanka, and haibun seem to point in that direction.

A Slice of My Life

Since I started writing Japanese short form poetry: haiku, tanka, haibun, I have been writing from my experience. My poetry therefore gives the reader a glimpse into my life; that is, my long journey from continent to continent, from country to country, from city to city.

I remember when I first came to America, an American said to me, "You are rich in experience." She seemed to have known me for years by simply listening to my story that I had gone through the Vietnam War and its aftermath, that I was starting a new life in America. I would like to showcase some of my published tanka and haibun here to share with you, the ones who are interested in knowing more about me--a refugee playwright turned poet.

http://www.haibuntoday.com/ht63/h_Quang_TheUneasy.html

http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/pages83/Quang_Joy.html

http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/pages83/Quang_NotanIssue.html 

http://haibuntoday.com/ht63/tp_Quang_ThePrice.html

http://www.haikuhut.com/ahg/ahg14/tanka02.html

http://www.haikuhut.com/ahg/ahg14/tanka09.html

 www.ahapoetry.com/ahalynx/273hmpg.html

The following journal Haiku News is where I express my social-political view.

www.wayfarergallery.net/haikunews/

A Haiku Poet's Eyes

Since I received my MFA in writing, I have been more observant than I was. Since I took haiku seriously and started writing them with an intention of being a published poet, I have been even more aware of the physical environment. Last week Wes and I made our first trip to Victoria and Vancouver B.C.; I said "our first trip" because we hadn't traveled outside America since my hospitalization two years ago. Once we got to the Butchart Gardens last Thursday, my eyes were like a camera, snapping shots of the place in addition to shooting pictures with my iphone. Immediately, a few haiku and tanka were churning in my mind. When the poems took shape, I jotted them down in my small notebook that I always carry in my purse. I had been to the gardens twice before; however, without a haiku poet's eyes at those two times, I simply enjoyed the sights and had a good time as I wasn't writing any poetry but working on my other projects. Now, my haiku poet's eyes not only allow me to relish the flowers, the plants, the trees, the ponds, but also let me take home a well of ideas and images excellent for haiku and tanka. This trip was enjoyable as well as inspirational.

Competition

I am not writing about writing contest but about we writers competing with the other media when it comes to writing. As the pace of life is getting faster and faster, we have hectic schedules and our attention span for reading also goes in step with life's rhythm--fast--meaning short. And, with TV, Netflix, video games, iPad, you name it, competing with our writing, be it poetry, fiction, and plays, we have to be competitive. Look at the trendy word in the writing world--flash--such as flash fiction, flash non-fiction, flash memoir. What does this fad tell us? Everything we write has to go fast. Writing Japanese short-form poetry, I have made a good move when it comes to finding a medium to express myself, and I have been doing pretty well in publication. Haiku has only three lines, tanka five, and haibun a combination of prose and poetry, but it, too, has to be short. Well, I ran into some long haibun. For me, I will keep it short. And for me, it is similar to writing flash fiction. What I need is to get all the elements--who, what, when, where, how, and sometimes why--into the prose attached with one or two haiku or tanka, and bingo, I have a haibun. The move, though, was not made by planning, nor was it because I saw the writing trend but because, as I said in my earlier posts, I was recovering from my near-fatal illness and was eager to get back on my writing but was too weak to work on big projects, such as a play or a novel. Probably I am destined to be a poet in addition to being a playwright. My ambition to be a novelist is now on the back burner. It will return to the front. For now, I just focus on the short form poetry.