Tag: nguyenthiphuongtram

Nha Trang | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Nha Trang

The silence is the soothing suspended time in a pocket that carries me. I’m a cocktail of sadness and joy, I am nothing and more. The car horns beep down below far, calling home. A thousand people, a hundred thousand souls drove towards redemption. Crooked smiles, missing teeth, dull silver oily matted hair against long limbs, firm skin of teenagers. They are tired, they are all tired in the dying light. Grey, more grey seeping between stark white hot dusty concrete blocks settling in the shadows, deep in the dreaming of dawn. 

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the blogger, poet, and translator, was born in 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.

The sugar in coffee beans | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

The sugar in coffee beans
“a promise of summer”
The honey in wine
“notes of spring”
On taste buds budding lilacs
the fragrance of sweet yearning

Fresh soft morning dew
In the mist a foggy figure
Warm rays of sunshine
_____
March 2020

Water colour by Trần Băng Khuê

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the blogger, poet, and translator, was born in 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.

The words, should it not be felt not heard? | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

The words, should it not be felt not heard?
Does a dog on heat require an explanation?
Does a black hole fear the inevitable?

Do you need me to hold your hand?
Then, will you feel that you’re understood?

Or, should you be afraid of the missing heart
in my chest?

One shot of espresso, one shot of coconut liquor makes a “Maria”
Paris some time ago

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the blogger, poet, and translator, was born in 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.

Tặng người tự do | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

“Tưởng rằng đã quên…” những ký ức ném vào thùng rác khi tôi còn ngơ ngác nuôi những gì gọi là hạnh phúc (thật sự). Sự ác tụ trong những anh hùng tù giữa bốn bức tường thánh thiện cao hơn tầm mắt người. Còn tôi, đần độn mãi. Tôi sợ. Tôi còn sợ? Tại sao tôi sợ?

Lục ra từ đống rác một khúc nhớ, gói lại trong bàn tay, nhe nhẹ thắt gọn bằng tơ phút. Tôi tặng người tự do. 

—

“Thought, it has been forgotten…” the memories are thrown out with the garbage when I was still ignorant enough to nurture all that is called (real) happiness. Cruelty resides in heroes imprisoned amidst four walls of virtue beyond the human eye. As for me, stupid forever. I’ve been afraid. I’m still afraid? Why am I still afraid?

Fishing out from the trash a piece of recall, wrapping it with my hands, gently securing it with a web of minutes. Me gifting it to the one who’s free.

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the blogger, poet, and translator, was born in 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.

I have your word | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

I have your word
I don’t know
if it’s enough

But
shovel it in a box
(you think)
mould it into a convention?

In convention
we are cheats
the worst kind of liars
Be it, but I won’t.

You are free
but I will take
your words as mine.

Mine alone,
you know this.
You are free.

You are the eagle,
the trees
they rhyme
Do you see?
You are free.
_____
14.10.20
________
“Clear and sweet is my soul,
and clear and sweet is all
that is not my soul.”

Walt Whitman

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the blogger, poet, and translator, was born in 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.

The Princess and I | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

The princess lived in a castle in the far far north, the walls were made of black Kevlar reinforced with steel. Knights were stationed at every tower, and there were at least a hundred towers. At night she sleeps in the four poster bed, and in the daytime she has the other princes and princesses to play with and please. The princess never ventured outside the walls, not that she was ever curious. The green lawns and visiting butterflies were all that made her happy. 

Beyond the impenetrable wall, war ravaged the cold hard countryside. 

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the blogger, poet, and translator, was born in 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.

Into a thousand teardrops | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

into a thousand teardrops,
ashes in the wind blinded by the grains of time
squeezed in the hairline fractures in your rib cage
the silent ache throbs the beat of your heart

14/03/2020

The Old Quarter, Hanoi, Vietnam

Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the blogger, poet, and translator, was born in 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.

Envy | Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm

Art by Đinh Trường Chinh

in my heart the butterflies
your fingers the essence of flowers, cleanse
the unworthy flesh of a woman

a severed century
the blissful anguish

I’m jealous of a shadow
a light that isn’t mine
I’m blinded

by the curving meadow
I’m envious of
the soft grass at your feet
the grit between your toes
the blood through your veins
the butterflies in your heart.



April 11,2021






Nguyễn Thị Phương Trâm, the blogger, poet, and translator, was born in 1971 in Phu Nhuan, Saigon, Vietnam. The pharmacist currently lives and works in Western Sydney, Australia.