Women of Vietnam

What is life for you?
One bitterness
One sadness
and one of joy.
Full of breath
and hope kissed.

Each day your burn
to give us light.
To give to me.
Your tears as heavy
as the human body.
And hastily washed away.

The Streets of Hanoi

I am sleepy now.
Too many hours walking
the streets of Hanoi.
Dull reflections on
Hoan Kiem Lake.

I would rather a life of poetry.
Than bashing about these
timid days without a breeze.
And little comfort in passing.

My Picture: First Morning: Outside My Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam.

Motorbikes and scooters
rough miles in the city,
a grinning vice of ever sound.

Women bearing baskets
of strange coloured fruits.
And war heroes carrying
bundles of fake t-shirts
to market.

Slip-slap, slip-slap
the sound of the sandaled
street walkers.
Holding their babies
and selling cheap fans,
made in China.

Young girls crushed with eyeliner,
smile as I pass.
And stray cats strut their tails
in acts of defiance.

A lone saxophonist plays
in a back ally
“I think is Coltrane”
Said the tourist
and smiled anyway.

So I listened to the solo,
invading the city.
Life is on the street in Hanoi.

My Picture: Hoi An: Vietnam

I recently took a ‘road trip’ in Vietnam. I started in Hanoi in the North and after a month of traveling arrived in Ho Chi Minh City in the South.

To fall ‘in-love’ with Vietnam and the Vietnamese people…..was easy for me. With its dramatic landscapes, fascinating history, epic food, pulsating energy and kind and helpful people…it is a country that created many indelible memories for me.

So as I traveled I was able to write some poems…poems about moments, people, places and about just ‘being’ in a culture, a country, a place that I had never experienced before. The next few poems I post will reflect this journey for me.

I hope you enjoy some of them.