Poetry – A Borderless Language of Peace

Vietnamese poet Vo Thi Nhu Mai, currently living and working in Australia. (Photo: Courtesy of the subject)

WAJ: How do you see the idea of peace expressed through poetry?

Vietnamese Poet Vo Thi Nhu Mai: In Wendell Berry’s “The Peace of Wild Things,” peace is found in the stillness of nature and in the quietness of the soul. Emily Dickinson, in “Peace,” sees peace as a deeply inward state of mind, gentle and difficult to perceive. Meanwhile, “On Peace” and “Songs for the People” emphasize harmony, compassion, and hope for a world free from conflict. Through these works, peace is not directly discussed in terms of war, but rather through the ideas of serenity, love, and empathy among people.

WAJ: Through your experiences at poetry readings and literary and educational conferences around the world, what have you discovered about the power of poetry?

Vietnamese Poet Vo Thi Nhu Mai: In recent years, I have had the opportunity to be invited to many poetry readings and literary, educational, and poetry conferences around the world. Through these encounters, I have come to realize one thing: poetry has the power to connect people and to reach far and wide.

WAJ: How can poetry speak to human suffering and awaken compassion?

Vietnamese Poet Vo Thi Nhu Mai: Poetry gives voice to a peaceful world and to the beauty of life, while at the same time confronting human suffering, natural disasters, wars, and the problems that continue to unfold around the world every day. Poets sit together, create together, talk together, and write simple stories and messages about peace. Poetry can touch people’s hearts, awaken compassion, and soften even the hearts that seem to have grown the hardest.

Vietnamese poet Vo Thi Nhu Mai (second from the left) with international poets. (Photo: Courtesy of the subject)

WAJ: What role do poetry festivals, online activities, and social media play in bringing people and cultures closer together?

Vietnamese Poet Vo Thi Nhu Mai: It seems that somewhere in a small corner of the world, in some country or city, poetic activities are always taking place. Poetry festivals may last three days, five days, a week, two weeks, or even an entire month, bringing people from different countries and cultures closer together. And not only through in-person festivals, poetry also spreads powerfully through online activities and social media, continuously, like waves following one another without end. Perhaps this is why poetry has become an inseparable part of the longing for peace and the hope for a better world. People can meet through empathy, listen to one another with their hearts, and find one another through poetry.

WAJ: On World Peace Day, September 21, what can poetry remind us about peace?

Vietnamese Poet Vo Thi Nhu Mai: On World Peace Day, September 21, what poetry can do is remind us that peace always begins with very small things: a soul that knows how to listen, a heart that knows how to empathize, and a person who can see another’s pain and choose love instead of hatred. A poem may not be able to end a war, but it can soften a heart, open the door to understanding, and help people realize that, despite our differences in language, culture, or where we were born, we all share the most fundamental desires: to live, to be loved, and to live in peace. And perhaps that is the most beautiful language of peace that poetry can speak, a language without borders, one that needs no translation and begins with peace within each of our souls.

Vietnamese poet Vo Thi Nhu Mai, currently living and working in Australia. (Photo: Courtesy of the subject)

Vo Thi Nhu Mai is a Vietnamese poet, translator, and editor based in Australia. She serves as Continental Coordinator for Oceania of the World Poetry Movement (WPM) and is an Executive Committee Member of WA Poets Inc. She has translated and published more than 10 bilingual poetry collections by Vietnamese authors and has participated in international poetry festivals across Asia, Europe, and Australia.