MOON 36 46 55 56 76 77 81 97 149 162
The imagery of the moon roughly appears ten times in the
book of poems Hidden face flower eight times in Noi Dung and twice in Con mat
ngheing
In A Flower the moon spreads fragrance to quicken
the birth of a flower next morning.There is synaesthesia.The flower spreads
fragrance while the Moon gives light. Ii is the eye that enjoys the moon. It is
the nose that feels the existence of a fragrant flower. But when one sense
modality is felt perceived or
described in terms of another, it is a
case of synaesthesia. But this is not all.The moon is the mind or imagination
that broods on the nocturnal or darkness
so that it is manifest in the shape of flowers alight in day time. This could
be interpreted in many ways . On one level whatever is manifest in the world of
eye and ear springs from the unplumbed
depths of the mind. It speaks of an aesthetics. A piece of poetry is manifest
in the external world, But mind and imagination
toils throughout the night unseen to bring about the poem in broad day light.
May be the flower or the poem might stand for the morning sun
In the poem To be Aware the poet sets out in the night to
gather moonlight.But it is scattered away by a tree.Hence he has nothing else to
garner.This defines a poet.He is a person with whom neither gold nor silver but
moonlight or the abundance of
imagination is the only wealth. And to gather the wealth the poet keeps awake
in the night when the rest of the world
go to sleep
The moon weaves a
sedge mat. The poet can hear the sound of sedge mat weaving in a moon lit
river.What could be the mat but a matrix of words or poetry.? (Return to the
Village)
The moon or the mind of the poet is ever tranquil even in
the face of storms or natural or man made calamities. The moon is the silent
witness of the upheavals in the physical world.
Tea is the plant that sprang from the clair voyant eyes of
Bhagavan Bodhidharma. The moon reflected
on the river or poetic fancies reflected on the minds of readers could function
as a cup of tea that gives fresh vigour
Let the weevils do whatever they can the harvests of human civilization
is not foredoomed to be destroyed Because the poetic imagination or the moon
steadily drops down. The pure consciousness is descending upon that will
destroy all evil
The moon stands for enlightenment. It manifests only in a
Buddha. When people find it their shadows or the inner self bow down before the
poet or the Enlightened One.
The moons shadow or reflection does not delude.It does not
forge any decoy to attract objects of
hunting. One wonders what does the fishing hook of poetic imagination seek to
retrieve in the shadow of the purer mind!
The moon is the symbol of compassion for all things great and small .
The more the grass is withered the more the moon is brighter to charge the
withered grasses with fresh vitality
The poet however finds a cloud covering the moon. It seems
to close the eyes of poetic imagination That is, on the surface, the book of
poems entitled hidden face flower comes to its omega. But is not the cloud
alight with the moonlight though the moon is hidden from the eye? Are not the readers illuminated when the perusal
of the book is over?
Thus the recurrent imagery of the moon in Mai Van Phans
poems weave a particular strand of the sedge mat that is hidden face of flower
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