  Poetry
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** Image ID #1532739 Unavailable **
My poetry doesn’t ‘belong’ to me - it belongs to those who need it.
~~Phuoc-Tan Diep |
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A Vietnamese boat refugee and a three-year old boy, Phuoc-Tan Diep migrated to the United Kingdom with his family in 1978. His family was placed in the village of Pelsall in the West Midlands, where they received help from the local Methodist church.
When he was a child in Vietnam, Phuoc-Tan Diep's family was a member of the wealthy and intellectually elite society, but they lost everything when the Vietnam War began. They were forced from their home and taken to brainwashing camps in the forests. With three young children, his parents escaped to Hong Kong where they stayed until they migrated to Wolverhampton to stay with a well-to-do Vietnamese family. From Wolverhampton, they relocated to Pelsall, where they knew no other Vietnamese people and were taken in by a local Methodist church. Phuoc-Tan Diep described the church as a Godsend. Still, integration was difficult due to language barriers that had to be overcome and displays of racism toward the family by other members of the community.
As with most Vietnamese people, Phuoc-Tan Diep is very close to his family, including a wife and child and his siblings and parents. They keep in contact and though they have been nomadic, Phuoc-Tan Diep feels that home is where his family is.
As a teenager, Phuoc-Tan Diep was introverted and wrote poetry as an avenue of expression. He states: "There were lots of things that I had experienced when I was young that I did not understand. I felt a disturbance. I felt unsettled. I have always felt that it was good to explore some of the hard areas of life. My poetry about Saigon is something that has come about recently. I have a sense of guilt about leaving Vietnam. I am not sure if my dad might feel the same. It is hard to leave a country that you love.”
Now in his thirties, Phuoc-Tan Diep is a doctor, working in the hospital in Norwich; in his spare time he writes poetry.
Dr. Phuoc-Tan Diep has created one of the most innovative, contemporary poetry forms that I have discovered in recent years. It is a unique poetry form which he calls the "Cleave Poem."
Cleave: a contranym, a word with 2 opposite meanings:
verb 1) split or sever along a natural grain or line. 2) divide; split.
verb 1) stick fast to. 2) become strongly involved with or emotionally attached to.
The Cleave Poem is three poems:
~~two parallel ‘vertical’ poems (left and right)
~~a third ‘horizontal’ poem being the fusion of the vertical poems read together.
In its orgin, the Cleave Poem was an experimental form in which Phuoc-Tan Diep wanted to " examine how something can be more than the sum of it’s parts and can be 3 in 1: synergy, fusion, co-operation, dialectics, marriage, interdependence, teamwork and The Trinity."
A Cleave Poem is read as three poems:
~~Read the left hand poem as a first discrete poem.
~~Read the right hand poem as a second discrete poem.
~~Read the whole as a third integrated poem.
http://cleavepoetry.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/cleave-poem-a-new-experimental-poet...
Following is a Cleave Poem by Phuoc-Tan Diep entitled "Migration"
(Read the left column in bold as one poem, the right column in normal font as another poem, and the complete poem as the fused poem. It is like reading three poems in one.)
Swifts and swallows leave while I grasp for memories like
fruit remnants of home
riddled with holes my baby cools in my arms
dripping fermented juice the milk from her mouth
sweet sticks under my fingernails
under blushing trees the guards, with eloquent guns, demand my coat
those that can't leave expect a cold winter they smirk at my battered sweetbox
with its few hopes inside are smuggled postcards of thatched houses
and promises of English orchards.
I have found this to be a challenging and rewarding poetry form and have included it in "Poetry Forms" . I have created a combined index for "Poetry Forms" and "Invalid Item" which will aid in finding poetry forms, devices, and styles. The Cleave Poem is listed in the index.
| |  | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1527308 by Not Available. |
A Challenge
Create a Cleave Poem and post in it the following forum; each Cleave Poem posted in the following forum will be featured in the March 22nd edition of the Poetry Newsletter.
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1377097 by Not Available. |
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Cleave Poems by WDC poets:
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1528724 by Not Available. |
Other poems by WDC poets:
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1517817 by Not Available. |
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This item number is not valid.
#1528596 by Not Available. |
|  | Asleep (E)
all walls are not composed of mortar and stone...
#1047882 by Fyn   |
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1529891 by Not Available. |
One of my favorite WDC contests:
| | | Invalid Item
This item number is not valid.
#1375563 by Not Available. |
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The Poetry Newsletter team appreciates the time you take to read our newsletters; responses are always appreciated and respected.
Red Writing Hood <3 
Stormy Lady
larryp
and our guest editors
A thinker never sleeps 
What wonderful poems he wrote. They sound very passionate and free. Thanks for the great newsletter.
Thanks Thinker, I too enjoyed his poems and thought the story of his life was interesting, plus the fact that he still writes poetry at the age of 90+.
Ash
Good work!
Thank you Ash
monty31802
Thanks for another very informative newsletter Larry, I'm sure we all appreciate the time you put into your Newsletters.
Monty, thanks for your continual support. I hope the reader enjoys reading as much as I do putting the newsletters together. I learn so much in the process.
Karen
Have you ever considered including a poem writing prompt in each newsletter? Not as a contest but as a challenge. Sometimes we all need a good suggestion.
Karen, I have thought of it and at one time did so; maybe its time to do so again, as I did in this issue with the Poetry Newsletter Scratch Pad. Thanks for the little nudge I needed.
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Poetry: February 25, 2009 Issue [#2911]
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