Going out, returning safe and sound

That is very joyful, we'll plan later

The bodhi and poetry in the mind

Tidy the garden and worry ends at once

Tidy inside the alley and out on the porch

Dining room, bedroom, all places free of worry

When tired, take a snoring nap

Then rise for meals, care for the whole household

Mother and father are so happy now

Nearly 100 years old, still healthy and joyful

So many people are frail and worn out

Because life is too hard, dark all their days

How glad that father and mother are at ease

Eating and drinking amply, no worry over medicine

To cross the river there is a ferry

To cross the road there is a car to help

Hygiene, bathing, oh how joyful

The helper is already standing by to assist

So children, just keep singing

Rejoice for the Phùng family, full and content

Elegance is also needed in life

When the soul is dull, just let poetry flow

If not covered with rags

Then honesty is truly precious

Understanding each other, yet knowing to indulge each other

Conflict will vanish, though some remains

Therefore, live and act with fairness

Then family happiness will come

In Nhâm Thìn, celebrating Tết at Cô Hoa's

Grandchildren and children absent, the house deserted

Looking up, only see the blue Heaven

Looking sideways, only see red ornamental plants

Printed cards, greetings arrive to enjoy

Snow falls whitening, the garden's heart still behind

Mulberry fields turned to sea, the changes of time

People went into exile one odd year ago

Cô Hoa joyfully enjoys her years

The displaced people miss their homeland

All on the same soil, not far

From now Tết can visit home and homeland

War brings turmoil to everything

Please do not sow trouble, spare the good people

Blue Heaven, oh blue Heaven

Peace, two words, in this rosy land

To all the children and grandchildren, great-grandchildren:

[Prose preface:] Doan/ThuLe will hold a 30-year wedding anniversary on Saturday 24-6-2000 at 5pm at Hotel Plaza, OakRidge, TN. Per the invitation, Doan/ThuLe request no gifts. But father sees that for outsiders that is fine; within our own family, because there are so many siblings, father and mother asked Minh to buy on their behalf a symbolic gift for the whole family, to give Doan/ThuLe on this occasion, to keep family affection warm. It is a porcelain statue of Quan Am Bodhisattva, lacquered and gilded, and a set of Tam Da (Phuc Loc Tho), also porcelain, lacquered and gilded. Father and mother, with Minh, brought it to 11 Brewster Ln OakRidge, gave it to Doan and explained the meaning of this gift. (ThuLe was away, not yet back.) So please inform the whole family. Moreover father wrote a poem, to be read at the ceremony on 24-6 as follows:

Thirty years, the ring handed over

So much love and duty, day and night unfading

The ring on the hand is only the surface

Patience of heart is worthy if one knows to keep it

Love and duty is no matter of begging

Of one heart, knowing to keep it, it lasts long

Wealth makes headache-causing troubles

High power makes unusual sorrows

Wishing that everyone loves and cherishes

Faith, loyalty, propriety, duty are the path to follow

So many years wading streams, crossing passes

So many years of hardship and toil now over

Life partners, just two of you now

Loosen soil and water, the tree then self-gardens

Companion in the alley and out in the garden

Days and nights, morning to evening, tending to help life

Sometimes you meet uncertainty

Sometimes you find times terribly hard

The road ahead is still used though easy

Even though it is hard, it cannot bind me

Even climbing mountains, going out to sea

In mind, faith and duty, kept in form all life

Stream water can repay the source's grace

Heaven's grace saves, rain ever cooling the clouds

Never mind those who drink and smoke to madness

Husband and wife, society, I honestly adorn

To build a house you must measure the mortar

Wealth can help send loneliness away

The poor, do not mind them at all

Helping them with rice and gruel gladdens the self

Friends of heart, attentive and kind

The distant give only, the close respect

Today we review the path taken

Going, but for whom exactly is my aim

Not fearing the deep ravine, the stream line

Months and years exhausted, east or west I don't shirk

Husband's love, wife's duty, the married pair

Thirty years married, going home on a shared path

Wishing that fortune and blessing are enjoyed together

Praying for long life, helping together, vast as the sea

Hưng Yên, famous for its longans, renowned

Thick flesh, small seed, healthy to eat, how sweet

Reduced, compared with America now

Fruit big, sweeter still, today, unexpected

Only through careful tending, fine care

Only through killing pests, every hour and moment

Longan branches, heavy-laden with thick fruit

You eat and feel delight, life ecstatic

Remembering someone, sowing seeds, oh dear!

Thanh Phùng eats the fruit, children just now grow to eat

Those children can repay the debt

Wishing heaven's price, good needs of days

Punta Gorda, date 7-8-03

Good news just received one night

Sad news comes again to the doorstep as before

By day doing nonsense in excess

By night always talking, still not content at heart

Wishing that all goes as desired

Wishing that mother sleeps, done with delirium

Now the family authority is exhausted

Only waiting for the karma of the Buddha's grace

Rejoice that the younger grandchild has turned two

Wishing for both kinds, that's the wonder

Ancestors' blessing, day and night, for good health

Eating well, sleeping soundly, pleasing everyone

Growing bigger each day, as we wish in our hearts

Studying well, clever, a diligent pupil

Serving the future, full of promise

A happy family, a name unfading

Today the younger grandchild has turned two

Wishing health, joy, play, forever and always

In the future growing up, studying hard

Each day, each progress, never wrong

Later competing, showing talent and wit

Building a career, fully accomplished

Worthy of a boy, child of the Nguyễn family

Repaying grace and duty, a lasting good name

From afar, the child phones home

Asking after father and mother, how are things?

How is your health these days?

Dear child! Father and mother come and go, fairly at peace

There is Đoàn caring, staying close

There is also a nurse continually helping

Medicine is no worry at all

Food and drink, cooked so deliciously

There is Hoa helping so completely

The family helps too, happy are the household's children

Mother and father no longer need to worry

But you too are nearing eighty

There are many ailments in the body

Living alone at this age can be alright

Wife and children are too far away

If illness comes, who is there to help

Your friends are all far off

Meeting to talk is hard, so sad

Keep it in mind and heart always

Time still rushes rolling on and flying

The future, must think sooner or later

Prepare a place to live, steady in old age

Discuss for now with Phi, Sơn

Then decide, so as not to be too late

Before, there had been convulsions

Time so quick, it suddenly vanished at once

Convulsions occurred this time

Too long, too strong, pulling the whole household

Weekend, morning, the third watch

Head aching painfully, body trembling

Limbs now straight, now bent

Blazing until now as if fire is stoked in

Truly a moment of staggering

Cannot control anything anymore

Đoàn at once took the compress, hit the spoon

Rubbed the aching head, scratching endlessly

Scratching long, the itch pauses briefly

Compress with a hot bag, the head stops aching

At home, treating the headache

Also treating the itch, through the watch it's gone

Convulsions, if cured you're an immortal

No need for a doctor, no money to spend

That is a strange story

Told without fabrication, no woe, no sorrow

Thirteenth, Friday, in May

Thought I would die, because I lay trembling

Flesh and sinew, softened like mud

Bouncing up, bouncing down as if fired in a kiln

Limbs now stretch out then contract

Not calm then moving, like ash smothering embers

So many muscles rise and sink

All trembling violently, never still

The convulsion is at its peak

Surely at the moment of greeting the Lord of the Underworld

Third watch, should avoid the road

The illness is urgent, no hospital near

So at once hurriedly told the family

That is Đoàn sleeping just nearby

Đoàn went to get the compress then sat

Rubbed on the head once, two or three times

Rubbed on the itch, hoping for relief

Scratched for a while, the itch gradually eased

Compressed warm on the skin

The pain in the head sometimes as wished

Indeed, the sky beautiful as a painting

The convulsion vanished, success achieved, how precious

Life's affairs are Heaven's affairs

Joy and sorrow mixed, oh dear, do not fret

To fret is to suffer endlessly

Joy cannot be begged for, just live kindly and well

No jealousy, no envy, that's enough

No wicked heart, Heaven, sunshine even

Seeing anyone hungry and suffering, crying out

According to heart and strength, rise up to help at once

Mind pure, heart bright as day

No boasting, no seeking profit, like the Buddha's hand

Whenever one can drop the word 'SELF'

Then one feels happy, and happy for long