Topic of the month 5: What are the things I like to write about?

What are the things I like to write about? (Alan Maley)

What are the things I like to write about? (Alan Maley)

I think we all tend to write about things we are involved with or feel an instinctive affinity to. Writers have always done this: Jane Austen’s obsession with gentility and the way into marriage, Dickens’ lifelong concern for social equality and the perils of poverty, D.H. Lawrence’s almost pathological fascination with sexuality and the relationships between men and women….and the list goes on.

So what do I like writing about? Looking back, I think there have been a number of quite varied areas of concern in what I write. And I find that I write about different things in poetry than I do in prose.

For example, when I write poetry, I like to write about nature especially – the language of the sky, of clouds, the extraordinary lives of animals, especially birds. (I am exceptionally lucky that I can observe a wide variety of birds from my study window – herons returning to their nests after the long winter, woodpeckers hungry for food in the bark of trees, seagulls swooping overhead, …) And trees and flowers in all their infinite variety. And the changing complexion of landscapes. And the seasons, and what they do to change the landscape and my mood.

Another topic which recurs a lot in my poems is the memory-scape of childhood. Possibly, our most vivid recollections are the earliest. I think of my parents, of our life in a modest village, of what we did in a world without cars, TV, computers and supermarkets. These memories are all the more compelling because I know that those times can never be re-experienced. They are gone for ever – and thus it is all the more important to remember them.

I also enjoy mischievously sending up things in my poems. Sometimes it is through parodies of other people’s poems. Sometimes it is taking some human weakness and exposing it through the poem. Sometimes it is the irresistible urge to write something unconventional or downright rude!

Inescapable themes in my poems are love and death. What else is there to write about, in a way? First we love, and then we die. End of story. But these twin themes have been the mainstay of poems worldwide since poetry first began.

In my stories and novels, I like to explore themes which have a real impact on people’s lives: injustice, revenge, envy, corruption, violence, teenage problems, ageing and Alzheimer’s , modern-day slavery…We live in a world of injustice and misery – and such themes must be brought out into the open. Fiction is one way to do that.

But, especially in my stories, I like to experiment with all sorts of things – fairy stories, fables, childhood memories (again), mystery, crime, romance, regret .. a whole range of things.

The most wonderful thing about all of this is that we never come to an end of things to write about – nor of ways of writing about them. So lucky we are!

What are the things I like to write about? (Meng Tian)

What are the things I like to write about? (Phuong)

What are the things I like to write about? (Le Thi Anh Phuong)

To be honest, there is nothing I particularly like to write about. However, whenever I experience something that leaves a strong impression on me, I feel an urge to write it down. My poems are thus snapshots of what I feel strongly about.

I actually never thought about what I often write about until sometime ago a friend told me that I often write just about war. This observation has made me read my poems again and I find out that she is partly right. One theme that I often write about is the 'remains' of the war in Vietnam as can be seen and felt in the lives of those people around me. The scraps of stories told in my poems often trigger some personal experience that I had as a teenager growing up during the war. Therefore, each time I write about it, I feel relieved. I write because I don’t want to forget them, the experiences that have made me more mature, confident and 'human'.

Another topic that seems to recur in my poetry is pain, which can be quiet but haunting. I seem to write a lot about women too, especially the really old ones, as their lives are often a mystery to me and as such, they are really inspiring.

Regarding prose, I write about my family memoirs and my own life. This began a few years ago when I realised that my father, who often mesmerised us in our childhood with his fantastic stories about his childhood, his relatives and native village, could no longer remember any of them. Therefore, I decided to write about our big family and the main events in our lives. Besides, I write about my own life just to relive the main moments of the ups and downs of some decades of my journey into this life as a way to freshen up my memory. When I write about my family or my life, I want to express my gratitude to those have helped to make me what I am today. Thanks to the wonderful people that have come into my life, by fate or by accident, I can enjoy this life.

I'm not sure what I will write about next but it could be something completely different. Who knows?

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