Sending a little autumn scent in the new sunshine

QTO - I am holding in my hand the poetry collection: "Hương Thạch thảo" by Hoang Phuong Bac. The collection is quite thick with over 100 poems, encapsulating her feminine poetic soul. I am truly moved and touched when encountering a gentle, warm poetic soul filled with memories and nostalgia about the past, about what she has experienced in life and in her work. I also know that Hoang Phuong Bac started writing poetry quite early, but only occasionally did she send her poems to be published in some newspapers and magazines. Because according to her wishes, writing poetry is only for herself, for her loved ones, for her homeland and close friends... to play the soulful melodies of her own soul. As Voltaire said: "Poetry is the music of the soul, especially noble, sensitive souls"...

Reading “Hương Thạch thảo” by Hoàng Phương Bắc, we can fully feel her poetic soul, a delicate, gentle, sensitive soul that is deeply absorbed through each verse she writes. Hoàng Phương Bắc writes about many topics, about homeland, country, family, friends, colleagues, about the image of soldiers... In the poem “Tu thuc”, she confides: “Sending a little autumn scent in the new sunshine that is coming/to the sparkling poetic page/the youth that has passed a long time ago/presenting the winter of human life”.

Sending a little autumn scent is also sending a little scent of the Aster flower. Because the Aster flower blooms and spreads its fragrance every autumn of the year. Autumn is also the season when she was born in the countryside, so autumn and the Aster flower are always a source of abundant inspiration in her poems. Hoang Phuong Bac chose the title for the poetry collection: "Aster Fragrance" from those emotions and is also the message of the poetry collection that she wants to send to readers near and far to share and sympathize.

Poetry collection "Fragrance of heather" by author Hoang Phuong Bac, Thuan Hoa Publishing House - Photo: NVT

She wrote quite a lot of poems for herself in this collection. As poet To Huu said: “Poetry is the voice of the heart” of the poet. Let’s listen to Hoang Phuong Bac’s heart through the poem “Writing for myself”: “A woman of nearly seventy years, still has many dreams/… finding joy every morning/that woman must know how to overcome difficulties/accepting the suffering and sacrifice for her children…”.

In the depths of my heart, I faced myself, who said she was just a woman with many dreams, she was also a hard-working, responsible mother, who endured many hardships and sacrificed to raise her children to adulthood. With the same sobbing voice in the song "Year's End Afternoon", she broke out a poem full of anxiety: "Year's End Afternoon, why do I feel so heartbroken/a lonely nostalgia for the old spring days/the winter wind this afternoon seems to escape sleep/leaving the night to be restless with longing".

Homeland and country always have a special place in everyone's heart. Everyone has a hometown to love, to remember, to be attached to and to return to. Writing about hometown and country, Hoang Phuong Bac's emotions are always full of memories, nostalgia and gratitude for her roots, for the place where she was born and raised. Homeland in her poems is the countryside at the foot of the waves, the motherland is gentle and strangely loving: "I grew up in the countryside at the foot of the waves/with the south wind on calm afternoons and the sea is calm/listening to the distant ocean waves lapping against the rocks every night/the motherland is gentle and strangely loving" (Visiting the hometown cemetery).

Poems about family, friends, and colleagues are also full of emotions, stirring the hearts of many readers. Hoang Phuong Bac writes about the image of a mother with a kind heart, who is patient and hard-working, willing to raise her children with a gentle, loving and grateful poetic voice: "The Central carrying pole carries the two ends of the country/mother carries on her shoulders her grandchildren/the past few months I know mother is tired/longing for the South, and missing the North." (Letter to Mother).

Hoang Phuong Bac also devoted a lot of affection and confided in his son, with a warm, passionate, loving and proud poetic voice: “I gave birth to you on an early summer day/ the sun spread golden light across all the country roads/ …/ hoping that in the future your life will be less difficult/ the Golden Oriole is determined to find a way to escape hunger/ no matter how bitter life is/ I am still proud… to hear the Golden Oriole's song” (Written for the Golden Oriole). The image of the soldier in Hoang Phuong Bac's poetry always appears youthful, innocent, and full of life.

They were willing to sacrifice their youth and blood for the Fatherland: "The children born in many places/now rest in peace in the sacred land of the Ancient Citadel/the Thach Han River reflects the red sunset/like blood still mixed in the green stream" (Returning to the Ancient Citadel).

Reading the verses in “Hương Thạch Thảo” by Hoàng Phương Bắc, we can fully feel her “heart’s voice” distilled from a gentle, passionately loving soul, in tune with the motherland, with her homeland and with her love for life. That soul has created the anxiety and pain in each poem she writes to send to readers. Hopefully, “Hương Thạch Thảo” by Hoàng Phương Bắc will make an impression and have a solid place in the hearts of poetry lovers across the country.

Nguyen Van Trinh

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/van-hoa/202510/gui-chut-huong-thu-trong-nang-moi-dang-ve-5db4d03/