“Windless Day” (Writers Association Publishing House, 2023) is Thuy Son’s third collection of poems after “Like a Passionate Dust” (2017) and “Sediment” (2019); nearly 100 poems summarize the thoughts of a woman with the desire to “be a candlelighter” and “carry words far away” - a seemingly small desire but one that a poet devoted his entire life to may not have been able to grasp. Reading Thuy Son’s poetry, we encounter many feelings when turning the pages of “Windless Day”: the restlessness of a woman’s heart, rich in femininity, fierce in life and love, full of worldly concerns before the aftershocks of nature leading to natural disasters and enemies, the pain before the heartbreaking separations caused by epidemics and wars… However, for me, the poems she wrote about mother-child love left the most impression.
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Many people write poems about their mothers because throughout a child's life, their mother is the source of life, the support and also the place where most of their emotions are anchored. Thuy Son's poetry is no exception to that feeling; however, in "Windless Day", the image of the mother both carries universal features in poetic emotions and is dense with unique features, strangely transformed through the perspective and feelings of "a woman hiding her loneliness in her buttons"... Loving and grateful for her mother's love, Thuy Son - the child with "hair that has turned gray" weaves heartfelt verses: "I sit/ digging through the traces of time/ Picking up each grain of memory/ Stringing together a string of love".
The son pinned a white rose on his chest, but secretly wished that his mother would pin a red rose on the day he met his grandmother again in the afterlife. Reading the verses in the poem “My Mother Pinned a Red Rose”, we hear the loneliness and emptiness when the mother is no longer there; the son bids farewell to his mother with regret and sorrow because from now on he will forever be an orphan, but in his heart he prays that his mother and grandmother will soon reunite and drift together to the paradise.
Writing about motherly love, Thuy Son also has many other poems such as: "Lã không", "người mẫu ngày 4.0", "Đông lý lý", "Lợ người mẫu có con con autistic con", "Mùa xuân trên tóc mẫu", "Bến hà nguyên"... Being both a woman and a mother, Thuy Son understands and sympathizes with the feelings of her mother and many other mothers; she, like millions of daughters, was conceived by her mother and grew up from her mother's milk: "After each birth/ mother distills a spring/ a drop of ripe milk/ from the scent of sticky rice and scallion". Not only does she bear the pain of childbirth, but she is also the one who takes care of us with sweet drops of milk distilled from silent sacrifice.
In the journey of fulfilling her duty, raising her child from infancy to adulthood, although it is difficult in every way, the mother still has days to smile. As for the mother who has a disabled, defective, or autistic child, she will spend her whole life swallowing back her tears… Thuy Son bent down, opening her heart to share that pain with the heart of a mother: “The young, defective leaves/ Born from the moment of budding/ Leaves have souls and ages/ Know pain with each sleep they turn over”.
Through metaphors and comparisons, Thuy Son conveys the whole heart of a mother about her "special" children. Those carefree children do not know that they will be a burden for their mother for the rest of her life. And the mother, even though she knows that she will taste all the bitterness, is still willing to accept. How great and immense is the heart of a mother: "One day, mother, I am still here under this sun/ Please be the wave to guide my boat across the vast ocean/ Mother and child swim between the mundane life and dreams/ This game of chasing and catching is bitter and bitter". The mother devotes her whole life to the well-being of her children, but she is like a wick that has run out of oil; how can she hold on to time, how can she protect her children's whole lives.
Thuy Son's poetry also contains the mother's surprise and shock in the middle of the night when she thinks of... a missed day: "One day, the eternal call / The place to lie is desolate on all sides / Tears become a flowing stream / Waiting for the child... the missing leaf drifts back". The poetic image of the missing leaf evokes in our minds many haunting thoughts, more than once in the collection of poems the poetess has depicted: "The shadow falls on the road / a missing leaf... falls... falls!".
To deeply express the mother-child love, Thuy Son's poetry uses many metaphors, structural repetition, and alternates many poetic forms: 5-word, Luc Bat, free... Many verses have periods placed in the middle of the line, partly expressing the lost and bewildered state of mind, and also as pauses, silences... creating space for readers to ponder. Her poetry uses many ancient words, harmoniously applying historical allusions and allusions, making the classical quality blend with a modern perspective. Many poems are influenced by Zen thought, seeing all gains and losses as emptiness. With a deep love for poetry and a sensitive soul, the poet has conquered poetry-loving readers, igniting in their hearts a noble desire to live; at the same time, sending a message to many children to cherish and respect their parents and later, when they become fathers or mothers, to live for their children, for their children, and to know how to raise their children to be good people in any circumstance.
NGUYEN THI THU THUY
(*) Poetry by Thuy Son excerpted from the collection "Windless Day" (Writers Association Publishing House, 2023).
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