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Best Poems Written by Ngoc Nguyen

Below are the all-time best Ngoc Nguyen poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Ngoc Nguyen Poem

The Rime of the Swarthy Bard

Math, physics, English, and so on—
    alas, are tiresome!
All the professors here go on 
    with a prime axiom. 

A moldy, college campus where 
    knowledge and books abound,
freshmen and co-eds are clueless
    and confused all around.

Mid-terms and finals I so dread
    as the semester wends;
the pressure's on me to study
    as my freshmen year ends.

School's oppressive this semester,
    I'll see my old provost
and leave 'ere I rot and fester
    to try a better post.

William & Mary's M.B.A.'s
    are just worthless BS;
degrees from the home of “The Tribe”
    are dross that obsolesce.

I'll make rhymes as “The Swarthy Bard”—
    for lines are my forté,
not tomes or stuffy scholastics:
    now Poesy's my métier!

Details | Ngoc Nguyen Poem

''They Graze In Beauty,'' a Pastoral Parody of Lord Byron's ''She Walks In Beauty''

THEY graze in beauty on the land
     of grassy glades and dewy dales,
and all that's best of tamed and tanned
     meets in their aspect and their tails;
thus softened with that tender hand
     which Shepherd to mild glen compels.

One fleece the more, one spot the less,
     had half-obscured the shearless grace
which wreathes in every woolen tress
     that gently whitens o'er their face,
where eyes serenely sweet express
     how pure, how dear their ovine race.

And on that rump, and o'er that round,
     so firm, so strong, yet elegant,
the baas that win, the hooves that bound,
     but tell of days in meadows spent—
a flock at peace with all around,
     a drove whose milk is innocent.

Details | Ngoc Nguyen Poem

A Lament For Lost Youth and Love

I mourn for the death of my erstwhile youth,
     a time of innocence and naive bliss
which hid from me life's dark, unpleasant truth,
     but now holds all the pleasures that I miss;

a time of handsome beauty, brawn, and thews,
     as of a Greek god in his peerless prime,
like Heracles of fabled strength, sinews,
     and might that's of renown from mythic time.

But, O Desire!...how do I most long for 
     your renewal of my now lovelorn life
for me with the young virgins of folklore,
     whose maidenhead only can quench this strife!
 
Now in the fall of my increasing years, 
I have lost youth, and love, as old age nears.

Details | Ngoc Nguyen Poem

Sorrow O'Er Youth and Young Love Lost

When I look on my life that's now half-spent,
     I sigh the loss of youth that's forever past,
wishing myself better Fortune's consent,
     love, friends, and wealth with naught to lose or waste, 
but for the mean expense of young love lost;
     despising this, I oft' bemoan the loss
of vestal company's first time the most;
     for matrons offend like mouldering moss,
which, like Time's sure, inexorable march,
     destroys the juvenescence of life's spring
year by year till extinguishing Youth's torch,
     a dead flame for which I am most desiring.
If I could live and love anew once more,
I'd not err this time: and lay a rude whore.

Details | Ngoc Nguyen Poem

''Being Bipolar Is Like a Rose'': a Sequence of Tankas

Being bipolar
is like a Rose whose bloom is 
missing some petals: 
but her color is deeper 
than all the other roses.

She may never be
part of a "perfect" bouquet:
but her rich pigment
is a rare, precious paint for
Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."

Alas! She might not
be like the long-stemmed lily 
from the dells of life:
but her scent is the choicest, 
and makes the finest perfumes.

Being bipolar,
therefore, is like a Rose that's 
missing some petals: 
but her savor is sweeter
than all the other roses.

Details | Ngoc Nguyen Poem

''A Vignette of Nature'' Enhanced

A bloom breaks out afresh from its swollen, 
green bud and then stretches skyward into
 
the sun-infused sky. A feature of nature that's 
timeless and perennial, it faithfully flowers and

adorns its surroundings like its predecessors.
Never alone, and joined by its floral neighbors

of its own kind in fragrant numbers, it suffuses 
the atmosphere all around with a heavy, yet
 
sweet stench of lavender and honeysuckle. The 
thick odor attracts and entices the flower-

borne bees, hornets, and yellow-jackets nearby 
into a steady, rhythmic pulse of continuous,
 
busy labor over the perfumed blossoms and  
vibrantly-tinted petals. From an adjacent pond
 
the over-abundant and majestic beauty of the 
lily-of-the-valleys add its distinctiveness to
 
the already rich and vibrant, floral landscape,
now teeming with the vibrancy of spring:—
  
so lush with fulsomeness of life and movement!

Details | Ngoc Nguyen Poem

Poetic Justice


A poet's flowing poems uplift the souls
     of men and sing of legends small and great,
     of knights and lords, of fiefdoms, and of fate,
of kings, and pontiffs in ungodly roles!

Long, long ago, these popes, desiring control,
     enjoined the knights to charge; and penetrate 
     their Christ's Jerusalem to decimate
the infidels and caliphs of dark Sheol!

When wanton rulers pillage and plunder, poets  
     write and sing of their great, immoral acts,
betrayals, carnage, and cabals; tho' it's
     wiser to just ignore these damning facts,
let poets instead make them known, so it's 
     repaid by poetic justice's attacks.

Details | Ngoc Nguyen Poem

Adoring Lines To a Flower of Brazil

I love a lovely maid—a Flower
     of the sun-baked land of Brazil;
ageless, she by clock's every hour
     makes the time be perfectly still.

Though fair and gorgeously pretty, 
     she longs to be known and adored
for her heart and inward beauty, 
     where love is felt and richly stored. 

She's queenly and wears a lush crown,
     a regent who sits on her throne;
a Rose, she's praised and of renown,
     and prized for her rare grace alone.

Too selfless and giving and kind 
     to disappoint, she lives to care
and gives alms to the lame and blind,
     and for me always says a prayer.

Details | Ngoc Nguyen Poem

Bipolar Cliche

Life as a manic-depressive's very drab,
     and wearisome at times; it's bad enough
     to drag me down where I don't feel so tough.
When manic, I have the rare gift of gab;

when I do, I want to take a taxi cab
     to the club; get smashed; and act like a rough:
     but I don’t as I fear the cops' rebuff;
so, I behave like mice trapped in a lab.

My life's so full of hopelessness, it seems;
     if I could, I would end it right away;
but that'd be taking it to dire extremes
     and drama; so I oscillate all day,
and at night craft poems of less suicidal themes—
     God! I'm such a wretched, bipolar cliché!

Details | Ngoc Nguyen Poem

Composed In Non-Manic Mood On the Eve of 8 May 2018

Lustful desires come when going manic:
     it's an uncontrolled ejaculation!
(from this mania which feels fantastic)

Pelvis and loins afire and orgasmic,
     and engorged with such climaxed sensation;
lustful desires come when going manic.

Eros peaks, then runs wild and Jurassic;
     and hunts for racy gratification
(like this mania which feels fantastic!). 

To burn with unrestrained lust is horrific;
     but the intense flames of this condition
make coitus happen when going manic:

like being with a slut and sex addict,  
     or copulating with sweet abandon    
(when this mania feels so fantastic!).   

So, call it mad, or call it poetic;
     but this disease becomes a damnation.
(Lustful desires come when going manic,
because this mania is so fantastic!?).