Robert Yeo (b. 1940)

1. BIOGRAPHY

2. CRITICAL INTRODUCTION

3. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

4. SELECTED POEMS

• Spring

• Election 1976

• The Search

• A Poem as a Fan

• Saigon 1

• Dream

• Mummy What

• Those in Urban Yellow

• Faith

5. SELECTED VIDEOS

6. TRACK CHANGES: “WALL”

SELECTED POEMS

Saigon 1

After the violence synonymous with Saigon, 
Diem dead, bombs for New Year, human torches
Safety is astonishment not easily borne

So I am in Vietnam but here are lives
Lived like those elsewhere that I’ve seen,
If seeing is believing. Where’s the surprise?

But Saigon is no more Vietnam than is 
Hanoi, though in the north what they die for
Appears more real. My southern friend agrees:
‘Sooner one nation than Thieu. There’s Geneva!’ 

‘Is not our history like this bamboo here?
Bent, bent, it will swing back despite what 
The Americans do. The French were there
Surprises are for those with a weak heart.’

by Robert Yeo
from The Best of Robert Yeo (2012)

SELECTED POEMS: “Dream” >