Students find creative outlet in poetry

KUNMING — Teenage poet Li Ling hails from a mountainous town in Southwest China's Yunnan province.

Yet her poem Dark Night has transcended geographical limitations to reach readers across the world, displayed in the bright lights of Times Square in New York.

"Dark night I embrace, For all it prevails, So as love does," the poem reads. Li said that she finds solace in writing poetry.

Wang Chunlin is another young poet from Yunnan who is finding success outside the province. When she was invited to participate in poetry events in Beijing, she visited Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City — two places she had only seen on television and in books. "I want to study hard and explore a bigger world when I grow up," she said.

Both Li and Wang are from Mangshui town in Yunnan's Changning county. Nestled in the mountains, the town has been promoting poetry education for over eight years.

In the autumn of 2016, volunteer teacher Kang Yu was teaching calligraphy to the children at Mangshui Town Central School when it began to rain heavily. At the same time, the children looked out of the window, she remembers. "I told the children that we were going to write something, something shorter than an essay or a diary, with line breaks, something that can express your true feelings and emotions. It's called poetry," Kang said.

She suggested the children put down their pens and move their chairs aside to appreciate the rain. Then she guided them to express themselves through poetry, making use of the scenery.

Kang said that almost every student in the class wrote their first poem that day. Thereafter, regardless of the weather, the children would raise their hands and say they wanted to write poems.

After discovering the children's interest, Mangshui Town Central School and Mangshui Junior High School started incorporating poetry into their lessons.

Poetry classes are held in various locations, with teachers sometimes arranging "classrooms" under trees or by rice fields. "I love writing poems in the fields, where inspiration is everywhere," said Wang Yuanjiao, a sixth grader at Mangshui Town Central School.

Before this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, a cherished occasion for family reunions, some students at the Mengshui school had their first poetry class of the autumn semester in the fields, under the guidance of their teacher, Yang Deli.

Li Mingxi, a sixth grader at the school, wrote: "I wrote a letter, Just two sentences, Though, it encapsulates three years of missing. Silently, I placed the letter by my bedside, Hoping the moon would deliver it to my grandma in heaven."

Yang said, "The poems written by the children always make me feel sad." She noted that many of the students' parents have migrated from the town in search of work, and some of the children are left at home under the care of their grandparents. Some have not seen their parents for two to three years.

Through poetry the children have found an emotional outlet, as well as happiness and confidence, and the teachers have gained a way to understand their students better.

"Every student enjoys the poetry classes. Even those who are usually silent during other classes participate eagerly," Yang said.

During classes, students share their poems with one another. Particularly masterful lines are read eagerly by everyone, posted on display boards and compiled into booklets that are placed in the school's reading room.

Mu Jianxing, principal of the primary school, said that students have found opportunities and platforms to showcase their talent through poetry. "We encourage students to pen poems, and we cherish every creation from our students. Every year, the school holds activities themed around poetry and music, where students can take the stage to proudly recite their own poems," Mu added.

Student Weng Jiadai said that she cherishes the memory of a day in fourth grade when she recited two of her poems on the campus radio. When her name was announced as the author, she remembers feeling immense pride.

Nowadays, multiple light boxes in Mangshui display poems authored by local students.

Thanks to their poetry education, the town's children have expanded their horizons, discovered the better versions of themselves and gained recognition across China.

Wang Chunlin, a ninth grader at Mangshui Junior High School, has penned over 200 poems since the third grade. She said that she had once felt insecure, but the energy she draws from poetry and the friends she has made through poetry have made her more optimistic.

Poetry has also broadened her world, she said. Wang, who had never left her home county before she found poetry, has now traveled to Beijing twice to participate in poetry events. "I will keep on writing poems," she said, adding that her dream is to become a teacher and share the beauty of poetry with more students.

Xinhua