Fond Memories - Jeffrey Thai

Fond memories are what left behind us when we are advancing according to the operating rules of life. Therefore, speaking of fond memories is speaking of what belong to the past, of what lie still within distant recollection. Although fond memories are within recollection, fond memory and recollection are not really the same thing. There are some recollections that we don’t want to recall, to be faced with again. On contrary, fond memories, happy or not, bring to our mind the sacred, regretful moments of remembrance; they make us want to relive those moments, to once more “swim in the same flow of river water”, even though we know for sure it is impossible.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Gipsy girl is scared upon seeing that face the first time. It is not the face of a human-being. It is the face of a beast instead. Yes, she has never seen such a terribly ugly face in her life. It is the face of Quasimodo - the hunchback of Notre Dame. 

Happiness

Somebody has ever said: there is no happiness, there are only moments of happiness

Whether it is a whole or just fragments, happiness is like a naughty child playing the game “hide and seek” with us the entire life. The harder we try to find it, the more carefully it hides from us, behind the closed door.  If we come knocking on the door, it would play the game “deaf and dumb”. Just like that, we silently walk through our lives questioning ourselves whether or not there is so-called happiness in this world.

Homeland

On the old days when I was so young, I started thinking of the concept of homeland upon hearing the song “Homeland” by Giap Van Thach and Do Trung Quan in which it said:

“What is homeland, mom?

Which everyone misses so much on going away.”

On those days, homeland in my mind was as beautiful and simple as the song itself and I thought that nobody would want to stay away from their homeland where they had been born and raised.

Sulky Leaves Changing Color

It has been sulky turning so cold for the last few days. And leaves have also been sulky changing their color to a waning grass-like yellow.

Summer has gone, as quickly as an illusion. However, I feel like its burning heat is still around me- the heat hiding in it a whole sky of sexual desires. And there is still, in front of me, a very close image- the image of sunny Miami Beach with round and inflated tits which provoke a whole sky of concupiscence, and with well-developed chests which promise an abundant source of giving energy. The black complexion of the ethnic from Africa secretly hides in itself an odd hypnotic magic, which is in an accomplice with the burning heat of summer to lure people into endlessly pleasure-seeking activities. Summer here is a season of burning pleasures and love. The sun devotes itself to wandering, not bothering to set until after nine pm. Suddenly, summer has, in a blink of eyes, gone as quickly as never come, leaving me behind exhausted in the uttermost of unfinished pleasures. The sun also feels gloomy going to sleep early.

A Letter for The Dead

Arthur, you have gone again out of my life and this time it is forever

Rainy June in Vietnam

Reading an article of rain, I suddenly recall the rainy seasons on the very old days when I was still living in Vietnam. 

In Vietnam, June was the month of heavy rains.  In Vietnam June, it was making rains, making winds very hard.  Sometimes it was making rains so hard as if all tears of mankind were, at the same time, running down trying to flood this earth, flowing away all mankind's constant predicaments and concerns. Sometimes it was making winds so violently as if all hurricanes over the world were centering here, trying to blow away every remaining existence, making room for a complete rebuilt.

Barnes & Noble

 I put my footsteps onto the threshold of Barns & Noble for the first time after over twelve years living in USA.  It is kind of weird, isn't it?  When it takes that long for a once-bookworm guy like me to do such a simple thing:  entering a best well-known bookstore to buy a novel.  Actually, on-line literature has pretty much invaded traditional one's territory these days to the extent that the latter seems to become extinct on some people's mind, myself included, which is obviously understandable when with just a few clicks away, we can almost find whatever we want online without the trouble of making a trip. 

The Odd Fellows Building

To the professor of Arts, artist: E. Bruce Phillips

I love downtowns of big cities. No matter how many downtowns I have been to (actually they add up to a big number: Greenville, Raleigh, Virginia Beach, Washington D.C, Miami, New York, Paris, Toronto, Orlando, New Orleans, Houston..), the excitement is still there inside me, fresh and vivid, whenever I have a chance to pay them a visit. I still remember when I just came to Atlanta seven years ago, its downtown really enchanted me with its significant beauty and well-designed buildings, its tightly-packed bars, clubs, its flows of people hastily walking back and forth on every street... Although I have been stopping by many times, coming back to Downtown Atlanta the other day, to the Odd Fellows Buildings, still seemed to be a new experience to me. The reason probably was that it was the first time I have ever had a chance to have a close look at an art gallery, the astounding paintings exhibited in the building.

The Memorial Ferry

The last ferry trip.

So I could not come back to be on the last ferry trip over Hau River to say goodbye to the memorial ferry . Over twelve years has passed by and I have never gone back to pay it a visit. Feelings of regret and attachment keep on lingering on my mind. I finally decide to write these lines as a way to show my apology to the memorial ferry, even though it never finds fault with my absence.

Talk To You - Spring

 

The long cold winter days are finally over. Today, stepping out of the winter shelter, I suddenly saw beautifully blossomed flowers on the edge of the streets, realizing in a daze that you have come back, haven't you - Spring ?

Discussing The Concept of Idol

 

"Idol" is a word which has been used more and more popularly in our modern society, especially in the entertainment industry, to indicate a perfect public figure who a lot of people adore and worship, such as an actor, an actress or a singer... Most of us must be familiar with the currently famous programs like American Idol, Vietnamese Idol. It sounds like there are a variety of "Idols" existing in our world in people's eyes these days. But is there really such a so-called Idol in this real world ? I don't think so.

Have and Have-not

Every human life inherently has in itself a destiny. It seems that what we can have and what we cannot have has been settled even before we are born. What we can have would come and stay in our hands even if sometimes they are not what we really want. What we cannot have would never come or if they come, they would not stay for long no matter how badly we long for them, no matter how hard we try to achieve them. There are some things that I have but you have not and otherwise, there are some things that you have but I would never have.

Vietnamese Opera and An Oversea's Confidence

I left on that day. Feeling sad like never before. Moon over sea- cold and lonely. But not as cold and sad as the soul of a young man who had just left his homeland for the first time.

Feedback on Light That Casts No Shadow

 I first read "Light That Casts No Shadow" by Watanabe Junichi in around the year of 1987 and reviewed it several times in the following few years. After that, due to some dramatic events happening in my life, I did not have access to that book any more until recently when I accidentally found it on Internet. I read it once more and was surprised to find that the first impression about it was still there, fresh and vivid, after two decades. After this reading, I know that I owe this masterpiece a feedback.