Giving recognition

Middle school student Qinghua says, from the poetry lessons, she has learned how to appreciate beautiful things and how to express her feelings about them in vivid and beautiful language, adding that she was proud of her poem, Marrying the Wind: "Many times/Had the wind kissed the bud/Before she put on her bridal veil/Shyly marrying him."

For Li Yaolin, 15, another high school student in Changning county, Yunnan province, poetry has helped him to rediscover himself, and has become an important part of his life.

Yaolin says: "Through poetry, I've learned to be brave and tough, gradually getting rid of my timid self. Now I dare to try new things, to express myself, and to step outside of the cage where I used to be.

"When I feel lost and helpless, I will turn to poetry. It's the voice inside my heart, accompanying me through those difficult periods of time."

She gives one of her poems as an example titled I Didn't Give Flower Milk: "Sister Flower was born/Her mouth wide open/Asking me for milk/For her mother died last winter/I didn't give her milk/I told her to be a brave flower/Just like the elder brother/I also told the younger flowers/Don't pretend weakness/Only when you grow bigger/Will others bend down/To smell your fragrance."

For students of this age, the most important thing about poetry is that it encourages them to express themselves candidly, so that teachers and parents can understand them better, Yang says.

"We want to present the other facets of these children from poor areas－not just pathetic poverty," Kang says. "You can find beauty and power in their inspirational poems. What they need is not sympathy, but recognition, which I think will influence their whole life."