The students find creative freedom in poetry

KUNMING – Teenage poet Li Ling comes from a mountain town in southwest China’s Yunnan Province.

But her poem Dark night has transcended geographic boundaries to reach readers around the world, presented in the bright lights of New York’s Times Square.

“Dark night I embrace, for everything triumphs victoriously, just as love does,” the poem says. Li said 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 Tiananmen 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 City, Changning County, Yunnan. The mountain town has been supporting poetry education for over eight years.

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

She suggested the children put down their pens and push their chairs aside to enjoy the rain. She then guided them to express themselves through poetry using the landscape.

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

After discovering children’s interest, Mangshui Town Central School and Mangshui Junior High School began incorporating poetry into their lessons.

Poetry classes take place in a variety of locations, with teachers sometimes setting up “classrooms” under trees or near rice fields. “I love writing poems in the fields where inspiration is everywhere,” said Wang Yuanjiao, a sixth grader at Mangshui Town Central School.

Ahead of this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, a cherished occasion for family reunions, some students from Mengshui School, led by their teacher Yang Deli, had their first poetry class of the fall semester in the fields.

Li Mingxi, a sixth grader at the school, wrote: “I wrote a letter that only consisted of two sentences, although it encapsulates three years of absence. I silently placed the letter next to my bed and hoped that the moon would deliver it to my grandma in heaven.”

Yang said, “The children’s poems always make me sad.” She noted that many of the students’ parents had migrated out of the city in search of jobs, and some of the children remained at home under the care of their grandparents. Some have not seen their parents for two to three years.

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

“Every student enjoys poetry lessons. Even those who are usually silent in class are eager to participate,” Yang said.

During class, students share their poems with each other. Particularly masterful lines are eagerly read by everyone, displayed on display boards and compiled into notebooks that are displayed in the school reading room.

Mu Jianxing, principal of the elementary school, said students found opportunities and platforms to show their talent through poetry. “We encourage students to compose poetry and we value every creation of our students. Every year, the school holds activities around poetry and music, where students can take the stage and proudly recite their own poems,” Mu added.

Student Weng Jiadai said she fondly remembers a day in fourth grade when she recited two of her poems on the campus radio. When her name was announced as an author, she was very proud.

Today, poems written by local students are displayed in several light boxes in Mangshui.

Thanks to their poetic training, the city’s children have broadened their horizons, discovered better versions of themselves, and gained recognition throughout China.

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

Poetry also expanded her world, she said. Wang, who had never left her home county before getting into poetry, has now traveled to Beijing twice to participate in poetry events. “I will continue to write poetry,” she said, adding that her dream is to become a teacher and share the beauty of poetry with more students.

Xinhua