“A one-story house holding 60,000 gallons of gasoline.”
3 complete sentences come before that phrase. 3 come after.
5 of the 6 have an active verb. 3 above and 2 below. 4 have an arresting image, 1 above and 1 below, plus 1 in the first sentence repeated in the final 1.
This is an utterance of transatlantic modernism, a gem cut from hard speech. On the other hand,
the pivotal, sole sentence fragment specifies just the volume of gasoline that would fill my own one-story house, 8 hundred square feet,
10-foot ceilings. This poet is of the schools of the Warsaw Pact where everyone, even the literature teachers,
spoke engineer. Fine. What does it mean, this title poem of Hai-Dang Pham’s selection from the works of Phan Nhiên Hạo?
I don’t know. I do know that it is a poem among people who say that a poem should not mean but be.
I also know that in our speech community we say a poem should blow the top off your head.
Viet Nam letters have addressed Paper Bells from poet Phan Nhiên Hạo translated by Hai-Dang Phan 6 times. The first time was on March 2, 2022.
Viet Nam letters respects the property of others under paragraph 107 of United States Code Title 17. If we asked for permission it wouldn’t be criticism. We explain our fair use at length in the letter of September 12, 2022.
The colophon of these Viet Nam letters, directly above, shows the janitor speaking with poet David A. Willson on a Veterans Day.
