Queensland Poetry Festival

Hi everyone, first of all, just wanted to say a huge thank you to all who come visit my blog. It's a true pleasure to be learning both with you and from you. Life can get busy heaps, but I think it is always important to keep God as the focus, as despite whatever difficulties we would be facing, God is always there; just be open to His grace. 

This coming weekend, I have been humbly invited to perform some poetry readings at the Queensland Poetry Festival. It would be a true delight and pleasure to have you come join if you can. 

Below is an interview with one of the Queensland Poetry Festival committee members. 

Interview: Vuong Pham

Vuong Pham is a Brisbane-based teacher and poet. His first collection of poems,Refugee Prayer, was released in April 2013. Vuong particularly enjoys writing haiku and poetry inspired by God. Vuong blogs at versesoftheinnerself.blogspot.com.au.

Catch Vuong @ QPF 2013 in Language of Light (Sun 25 August, 11am)

Your debut collection, Brisbane New Voices IV – Refugee Prayer has already been a smash hit with Brisbane audiences and your blog posts also indicate continued success with haiku publications and public installations.  So what are you working on at the moment?

Thanks Cindy, Refugee Prayer has been a true pleasure to share with the Brisbane community. I’m currently working on my first haiku book. I have written about 90 solid haiku lined up into my manuscript. In my research of the number of haiku a standard haiku book has, the range is somewhere between 60 to 100 haiku are a good number. Anything less than 60 is too lacking, anything more than 100 is too daunting. By the time I compile the book into a narrative flow, my ‘solid 90 haiku’ will no doubt be condensed to about 70, when I weed out the haiku with a similar theme. For example, I wouldn’t include 5 haiku about the moon in the book; they’d be too similar. So at the moment, I am still generating more and more haiku to fit into the book. And in terms of my options for publication, I have the interest of a respected U.K. haiku publisher, and I was also considering the option of having illustrations in the book, that could add some charm.

I believe you are regular slam poet?  What do you like most about poetry slams and performing your work live?

I like to attend the occasional poetry slam. What I like most about performing in slams and performing live is my haiku. Revealing a moment of pure beauty through haiku is a very satisfying and refreshing feeling. I know it is an under-practiced art, especially in the performance poetry scene, so I like to promote it as a vibrant form (that can shine from the page and into the stage) through tailoring my haiku in a way that has a narrative flow and incorporates audience engagement and humour.

Throughout my years of performing haiku at events, I’m finding people often approach me after the show to congratulate me and mention that I have changed their perception of haiku. My understanding is that haiku is stereotyped as a 5-7-5 syllable constrained poem that only scratches the surface of one’s imagination, and is tailored for the page. So it’s the aspect of challenging stereotypes and surprising audiences that I enjoy. I remember once hearing a Bush poet perform at the Queensland Writer’s Centre, and I must admit, my first thought was “okay, here’s another boring bush poet with a predictable set of rhymes”. Yet, it was one of the most entertaining and funny poems I’ve ever heard performed. The audience loved it and erupted in applause. So we can all take a lesson from this: to challenge stereotypes.

As a lover of poetry and a teacher, what poets do you think all students should be aware of and why?

Speaking of lessons, I think students should be aware of the poets: Basho and Rumi. Basho is a minimalist; his poetry says so much more than what is written in the poem and encourages you to expand your imagination. Example:

my house burnt down
now I can better see
the rising moon

We’re seeing the images of a burnt down house, a rising moon and the poet in the midst of it all. But it says so much more: he’s a positive person, he values nature over man-made things, and that there is ‘life’ after ‘death’. Students will be better off to know Basho’s poetry as it is important to be positive, and find the positives in negative situations, otherwise, it can be dangerous to be caught in a continuous negative thinking loop—which can lead to problematic issues like depression, suicide and so on. Also, haiku is a nature-based art form, and to be writing haiku encourages students to go outside and enjoy the natural world as opposed to watching TV or playing video games, which can be a distraction to their personal development.

As for Rumi, his poetry is very spiritual and encouraging. Students can get a lot of wisdom and spirit from reading his works. Example:

Knock, and He’ll open the door
Vanish, and He’ll make you shine like the sun
Fall, and He’ll raise you to the heavens
Become nothing, and He’ll turn you into everything.

Rumi is speaking of the strength and life God has to offer, even when we are at our lowest, God can take away our burdens and raise us up to shine like the sun.

Can you share a poem with us?

I’ll share some haiku:

SEX billboard
more aroused by the cheap
petrol price

half moon
the way light fills
darkness

last night’s rain
keeps a jasmine petal
on the birdbath

door curtain billows…
an angel enters
into my book

searching for truth—
a loose page from the Bible
lifts in the breeze