Heller and Anderson are prolific writers. I can’t keep up with their sheer volume of books on graphic design. The Logo Design Idea Book, which released in 2020, featured 50 logos with a one-page explanation for each. It is short, sweet, and insightful. It’s a perfect switch for me from poetry to design.

Raindrops are tears for a love that’s fading…
Clouds drifting… are the nostalgic regrets of a time gone by…
You told me that you were happy, but your eyes say otherwise
Alas, my heart still cannot not forget
the heartaches of those days…

Fragile is Life, like the autumn leaf withering on the tree branch
Is it rain or warm teardrops falling, crying for a lost love?
Still there in my heart
are the months and years of longings
for us to live a happy life together.
Alas! The pains of Fate, of being late for each other.

I remember that autumn day,
grey clouds drifting in the far horizon.
The sad rain, your tangled hair wetting your lips
You give me your first kiss,
and wrap your arms around me.
I sing for you a song of youthful love in the twenties

Wandering in search of you but you’d already gone
Treading the streets that we had been together with lonely footsteps
O Love, do you hear the autumn leaves falling
Do you know that when autumn arrives,
we have lost each other in this life.

Translated by Vương Thanh

Nỗi đau muộn màng

Mưa rơi là nước mắt tình đã phai rồi
Mây trôi là nỗi nhớ tiếc thương mà thôi
Hạnh Phúc sao mắt môi em còn chơi vơi
Sao trái tim anh còn chưa nguôi
Những xót xa một thời

Mong manh đời như lá vàng úa trên cành
Long lanh giọt lệ ấm khóc cho tình xanh
Còn đấy bao tháng năm âm thầm em mang
Bao vấn vương cho đời thênh thang
Những nỗi đau muộn màng

Em nhớ có mùa thu mây giăng lối
Cơn mưa buồn tóc rối ướt bờ môi
Em đã trao anh nụ hôn đầu vòng tay ấm vui
Anh hát cho em bài tình ca đôi mươi

Lang thang tìm đâu thấy người đã đi rồi
Mênh mang đường phố vắng bước chân lẻ loi
Người hỡi anh có nghe lá vàng rơi rơi
Anh có hay khi mùa thu tới
Ta mất nhau một đời

Ngô Thụy Miên

Read through the collection and understood just a bit of it. My brain is just not picking up poetry and I simply don’t know what write even a few brief sentences. After five months of reading poetry books, I am taking a break and return to novel and fiction. It was a fun journey. Of course I will continue to read poetry, but not exclusively.

Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh are driven by sex, money, and power. They are gangsters of the corrupted Supreme Court.

I am not adjusting well with warm weather. I am not looking forward to doing yard work around our property. Although I am enjoying rollerblading, I am missing skiing and snowboarding in the winter. To keep myself in the game, I continue to do snowboard training in my basement.

Base on the video clips of myself snowboarding last season, I still need to work on my stance. I need to remember to keep my whole body on the board and only my knees bent. I am OK with my toe stance, but I am still falling on my butt once in a while on my heel stance. Tring to sit on a chair without a chair is not as easy as I have imagined.

I am also working on my turns. Since my stance is goofy, I press down with my right foot first then my back foot would follow for my toe turn. For my heel turn, I roll my right knee first then my back knee would follow. The rhythm is 1, 2, 3, 4. Malcolm Moore has an excellent explanation on this technique.

I am also working on my 180-jumps to prepare myself for steep slopes. I always save this one for last because jumping is exhausting. It’s a great exercise.

I wonder what else I can learn snowboarding in my basement.

Evening falls
Leaves asleep by the hillside
She, a slender beauty in white dress,
Looks at Heaven’s Gate, shrouded in smoke and mist…

Night temple gongs waken peony flowers
Four misty seasons, filled with longings for the homeland!
The wind gently sways bamboo branches
Her dress gently flows like sunset clouds…

Evening passes by
White clouds drifting in loneliness…
Calling on Poetry Spirit
She’s absent!

The ancient moon of legends traverses across the sky
Voices of the hidden heart float in the night
Anything left in this remaining age?

Still there’s the moon on the mountaintop
Still there’s the clouds in the distant horizon
Quietly hearing from afar the echoes of the sea,
And Mother’s voice singing lullabies to me…

Since I had left that autumn,
My heart’s been calling out to Vibrant Spring,
to the Sunshine Season of United Hearts Gathering…
The Vietnamese people,
From all corners of the world,
Fragrant with scents of Buddha’s teachings,
Coming together in Love and Peace.
O April ! How I miss my homeland …
When will it be reborn again?

Evening falls
The temple gongs sounding from afar…
Watching clouds drifting at the seaside
Love for homeland ebbs and flows like the tides

Translated by Vương Thanh

Cửa trời sương khói, khói sương

Chiều nghiêng
Lá ngủ ven đồi
Em nghiêng tà mộng
Cửa trời
Khói sương…

Chuông khuya
thức đóa Hải Đường
Tiếng chim hót…
bốn mùa sương
Nhớ Nhà!
Gió lay cành Trúc la đà,
Áo em tà mộng…
thướt tha mây chiều

Chiều đi,
Mây trắng cô liêu
Gọi Thơ,
Thơ vắng!
Gọi chiều,
mông mênh…

Ánh trăng huyền thoại,
lênh đênh!
Tiếng lòng ai gửi…
Cuối ghềnh gió bay…

Còn chi cuối vận hội này
Còn Trăng đầu núi,
Còn Mây cuối trời
Âm thầm tiếng vọng trùng khơi
Mang mang…
Ơi tiếng, Ru hời,
Mẹ Ru…

Con đi từ đó Mùa Thu
Gọi Xuân Hồng,
Gọi Nắng Mùa Đoàn Viên
Trời Việt Nam Ngát Kinh Hiền
Lời Kinh tha thiết Bình Yên quê nhà
Bốn phương về hội Thái Hòa
Tháng Tư! Lại nhớ xót xa quê mình
Bao giờ Quê Mẹ hồi sinh
Tháng Tư Khẩn Nguyện An Bình Quê Hương

Rưng rưng… Lá Nhớ,
chiều sương
Kinh Chiều âm vọng bốn phương, Nắng Hồng

Chiều nghiêng
Chiều nghiêng thu không…
Tiếng thơ rơi rụng! Bụi hồng gió bay
Tình Quê, Ý Bút vơi đầy…
Có người ra Biển nhìn Mây… Nhớ Nhà!

Tuệ Nga

I don’t fully understand Dekine’s poems—even a simple one like “Paris, 2019”:

I lost control
following cigarette processionals, in and out,
of a freedom-spatting
mausoleum head. I love

James Baldwin.

There are entire worlds
in his words. My heart became
a jade toad, croaking fire. I leapt—
followed e smoke.

I can’t figure out “e.” In any rate, I read through the collection once.

I love the elegant, book-inspired typesetting on Harvard Law Review.

Since Biden won the presidency in 2020, I have been liberated from politics. I haven’t paid attention to politics. I haven’t discussed politics. I haven’t blogged about politics.

Despite all the attacks, Biden has passed essential legislations. He got us out of the pandemic. His biggest victory was beating the whiny little bitch and he will do it again.

Biden has announced his 2024 reelection bid and both sides have criticized him on his age. I am sure Biden will make it to his 90s so let’s just stop the ageism bullshit. I will vote for him over that orange shit any time.

If, God forbidden, something will happen to him during his second term, Kamala Harris will be more than ready to step in. So let’s also stop the sexism. Again, I would pick President Harris over the piece of shit on the other side any time.

I must confess. I have many thoughts on my mind; therefore, I haven’t been able to focus. I read through Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué Madness, but I could not pay attention to the poems. Since the collection is selected from 1976–2035, the poems are too ahead of my knowledge.