Best Vietnamese Poems

a long parade of guests in pairs, longing for a chair or two,
a hundred or so, and their ice-creamed children, 
pushing through the market sounds, the glistening fish and meat,
against the dying piggy- squeals, by  the river’s flowing feet

wearing blacks and browns, some with...

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"Der aint nothin wrong with dat,"
said Haile Brown.

Mrs. Quincy's twin Vietnamese spotted ponies
had been shot
both dead
for trespassing on L. Ron Clark's property.

"They scared my sheep.
Chased em all over the place.
Aint gonna put up with none of that,"
said L. Ron Clark.

"Reckon she shoulda penned em up.
Cant...

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I knew you don't go in,
     But I wasn't coming out.
          When you're a fish in the fish bowl
     Going belly up....

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Vietnamese Tiger Bone Paste
How can it be? That a magnificent tiger gets turned into bone paste? I never knew it was possible. The email I got confirmed it was. Sign the petition they asked. 

I did. 

It's in Vietnam. Here the tigers are killed and...

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she says she is tired
she says
...things are not going so
well
she says
she can't hang her paintings
cause
the space isn't
right
she says
...things are not
going
not going so
well
i light a single stick
cheap
chinatown
incense
it worked in the 15 by 15 foot
buddhist temple
red
by the 
freeway
for my
son
snuggling on my chest
my room is 15 by 15...

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Ho Xuan Huong (1772-1882) was a risqué Vietnamese poetess. She has been called the BEST Vietnamese poet, a proto-feminist, and "the candid voice of a liberal female in a male-dominated society." 

?c Nh?i  ("The Snail")
by Ho Xuan Huong
translation by Michael R. Burch

My parents produced...

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VIETNAMESE      RESTAURANT

 
September afternoon in Saigon,
Delicately-embroidered decorative 
Cloth-pieces on furniture, 
From the French imperial era. 
Scary African wood-carvings,
And my little girl frightened  to even  look 
At some of  the wooden masks. 
Table in the near dark: ...

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   Nguyen was quite a linguist
     She spoke
       Chinese
       Japanese
       Taiwanese
       Vietnamese &
  ...

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I met a vietnamese woman in the C.B.D
She looked little, though, but truly dainty
We talked over fates and one's lot
I found her charitable and thoughty

The buddhism allotted her classy 
Which brought the meeting a bit lucky 
I imagined she might be an embodiment 
Delivering me...

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Ho Xuan Huong (1772-1882) was a risqué Vietnamese poetess. She has been called "the candid voice of a liberal female in a male-dominated society." 

The Unfortunate Plight of Women
by Ho Xuan Huong
translation by Michael R. Burch

Hey sisters, do you know?
The baby bawls at your breast
While...

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