Some thoughts on Nguyen Ngoc Hanh's poetry

I have been silently following Nguyen Ngoc Hanh’s poetry journey. I am very happy that his poems have been commented on by many people with “beautiful words and beautiful meanings”, and nearly a hundred of his poems have been set to music.

His poems appear quite regularly in newspapers and magazines from the central to local levels… But perhaps for a writer, the happiest thing is that his work does not fall into oblivion. Nguyen Ngoc Hanh confided: “Writing poetry is not to hope to be famous forever, but if someone remembers a poem, even a line of my poem, it is a happy encounter.”

It is not easy for someone to remember a poem, or even a line of one's own poetry. Remembering poetry is different from remembering prose.

Unlike prose, ancient people composed poetry mainly based on the laws of memory. Of course, not all poems written according to the laws of memory are good, but most of the good poems of the past are easy to learn and remember.

Browsing through dozens of articles about his poetry, I noticed that the most quoted verse is: “In the past, I lived in the village/Now the village lives in me” (Village). That proves that good poetry still has a common denominator.

The author describes the feelings of children far from home in a concise, simple, balanced, and philosophical way that immediately sticks in the memory of anyone who reads it.

I don’t know if writer Le Ba Thu has read these two lines of poetry, but in his poem “I write, I and my village” there is a similar line: “I am in the village and the village is in me”. Similar, but not exactly the same.

Prose and poetry sometimes differ by only one word. “Dwelling” is a static state, “living” is a dynamic state. “I live in the village” evokes so many memories. “The village lives in me” evokes so much love and nostalgia.

Looking at Nguyen Ngoc Hanh's poetry as a whole, I see that he is more successful in the traditional direction. Poems about the countryside are also more suitable for the traditional direction.

Hanh uses folk songs and folk songs very flexibly and creatively. These are the verses he wrote about his mother: Keep me in the wet place where mother lies/send the wind blowing through the fence of the night of labor/the cold on each patched mat/mother leaves the dry side of the roller (The wet place where mother lies).

In the last verse, he skillfully used the folk song: Raising children, regardless of one's own body / Mother lies on the wet side, child rolls on the dry side .

Studying carefully Nguyen Ngoc Hanh's poems written in the traditional style, I encountered many new ways of speaking, which made his poems not become old and clichéd like most authors who write in this style.

In the poem “Moon upstream”, Hanh wrote: I rest my head on December/Lying curled up/Listening to the sad sound of rain . In the poem “Paying back the loan”, he wrote: All my life relying on helplessness/Fragile blades of grass on both banks of dry reeds .

In the poem "Sending to my hometown", Hanh wrote: Sitting by the dry well at the village entrance/The verse touches the sound of the bucket, echoing with feelings .

Nguyen Ngoc Hanh's poetry is pure, sincere, full of emotions and thoughts. His constant concern for his hometown has helped him write heartfelt, easy-to-remember verses.

On the thorny path of poetry with many forks in the road, each person finds their own direction and way of expression, but the ultimate goal is to strive to write good verses and poems that can overcome the harsh test of time.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/vai-cam-nhan-ve-tho-nguyen-ngoc-hanh-3156310.html