VietNamNet Bridge - An anonymous man has promised to donate US$53,000 to the Vietnamese Writers’ Association for poetry-related activities.

Well-known poet Duong Tuong performed at the Vietnam's Poetry Day 2008.

The association’s vice chair, poet Nguyen Quang Thieu, said that the person was a devoted philanthropist but declined to reveal the name.

The association decided to use the entire donation to organize the first Asian Poetry Festival in Vietnam next January.

The festival will seek the participation of 50 poets representing Asian countries to present and discuss poetry.

The Vietnamese Writers’ Association will begin preparing for the event right after the upcoming Vietnam’s Poetry Day, which falls on February 17.

The Vietnam’s Poetry Day is an annual event held by the Vietnamese Writers’ Association to honor poetry as the art form and its authors. It was first organized in 2003 at Hanoi’s Van Mieu (Temple of Literature), the oldest university of Vietnam.

The annual Poetry Day will take place on February 17 in Hanoi, HCM City and the central province of Nghe An

Huu Thinh, chairman of the Vietnamese Writers’ Association, said the occasion would also mark the 100th anniversary of late President Ho Chi Minh, who left the country in 1911 in search of a way to liberate the country from the French colonists.

"There will be a soil and water procession at the Temple of Literature," Thinh said. "A delegation of writers from the central region will bring some soil from President Ho's home in Sen Village (Nghe An) to the temple."

They will also bring some water from the source of the historical Pac Bo Cave's Lenin Stream, where the president lived and worked in the 1940s, in the northern province of Cao Bang to the temple.

The soil and water will be housed at the association's museum in Hanoi.

Poetry readings will take place in President Ho's homeland, Nghe An province, and at Nha Rong Wharf in HCM City.

At Hanoi's Temple of Literature the busts of 30 famed writers will be displayed. Lanterns bearing 100 verses will also adorn the temple.

PV