Extra credit even review : Reading by Hai-Dang Phan

I attended a very interesting event on poetry titled “Reading by Hai-Dang Phan” in Old Main Colloquium 220. It was presented by Hai-Dang Phan, who was intriducted to the public by Professor Danica Savonick. She introduced him as a great author who holds a PhD in literary studies from the University of Wisconsin and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Florida. He also is the author of a poetry collection, Reenactments, published by Saravan in 2019, and the translator of Phan N. Then, when he started to speak, we could learn that he was born in Vietnam, and became a refuge at two years old. He spent his childhood living in Wisconsin, in a majority white people small town. Because of his origins, he explained that he felt a little bit rejected and used this pain into his poems. He said that his books are kind of inheritance, and that lots of poems relating about the past and legacy.

During this presentation, Hai-Dang Phan read several of his poems to us. He delved into his first work, which represents for him a memory of his childhood as well as all the stories he heard. His inspiration is regularly drawn from the artists he admires, such as a famous photographer whose name does not come to mind. For each poem he read (there were six or seven taken from the first book and a few also from his new collection, if I remember correctly) he took the time afterwards to offer the public an in-depth explanation and detailed description of the latter and the motivations which pushed him to write it. Unfortunately, I will not be able to go back over each of the poems he read because it would be too long, but overall, the recurring theme of his poems is childhood, memories. On the other hand, I chose to present in my review, the poem that touched me the most and that I remembered the best. This poem is called “King Fisher” and the verse that stood out me the most was “I remember, watching you, watching the river, I sense new depth in the meaning of the world”. I found this poem quite different from the others, and the thing that attracted me the most was the fact that it talks about nature within. Indeed, he confides that he is captivated by birds, and what is funny is that he reveals to us that it took him a while before agreeing to write about birds. I remember he asked to the audience who was a “bird watcher”, to try to feel less alone or even ridiculous who knows. This was rather surprising and unusual in his previous poems, but this poem really appealed to me precisely because of its originality and especially because of the fact that the author slips into the skin and into the mind of a bird in trying to interpret his thoughts and really got inspired by this bird, he was really guided by this bird, as shown in the quote I noted above, this bird allowed him to find meaning in things. In short this poem was very interesting, I highly recommend anyone interested to read it.

Ultimately, this event was very interesting and I was really happy to attend it. The gentleness of hang.. as well as the beauty of his writing, his compassion and his fight against discrimination, make his poems real life lessons. It is very pleasant to listen to the author read his poems because it allows you to have the right tone, and all the emotion that it gives off. In the future, I think I will certainly read his new collection because the few poems that he read from it captivated me a lot.