Youth and Poetry

By Suyun

The Earth Flows with Colors
By Xiao Shijia (Xiaohe Poetry Club, 11 years old)

This colorful world
Also has a radiant earth

In spring, the earth puts on green clothes
Green is a symbol of hope
This hopeful green belongs uniquely to the spring earth

In summer, the earth wears a deep blue hat
The deep blue sea holds endless mysteries
This mysterious blue belongs uniquely to the summer earth

In autumn, the earth dons a golden fluffy coat
The golden fluff represents the harvest fields
This harvest gold belongs uniquely to the autumn earth

In winter, the earth wraps itself in a snow-white cape
The snow-white snow and withered trees form a poignant beauty
This poignant beauty belongs uniquely to the winter earth

Untitled
By Zou Siyu (Xiaohe Poetry Club, 9 years old)

When a big tree is sad
It will drop a leaf
But humans will think it's a beautiful scene

Life
By Lei Yuhan (Xiaohe Poetry Club, 10 years old)

Some people's lives are as bitter as bitter melons,
while others' lives are as sweet as sugar.

Those who live a bitter life want their life to turn sweet.
First, they have to get used to life,
just like people who don't like bitter melons—
as long as they persist, they will come to like bitter melons.
That means they can endure all kinds of hardships in life.

So,
everything is possible.

Untitled
By Zhang Yuhan (Xiaohe Poetry Club, 11 years old)

What's wrong with the sky?
It keeps crying
Making the earth and rivers turn into a vast ocean
Making the soybeans and cotton seem to be diving
Making the fish and shrimp swim freely
The farmers are overwhelmed with suffering

After the rain stops and the sky clears
Everything returns to peace

Flower
By Hu Yule (11 years old)

She stands there quietly
People come and go, praising her
For being beautiful, fresh
But I say she is unyielding
You don't believe it
That's because you haven't seen
Her struggle in the mud

I Am Not Anyone’s Appendage
By Wang Yunyao

I am not anyone’s appendage
Nor a tributary of some section
Compared to these
I’d rather be a sudden downpour
A gust of wind rising in the wilderness
Or the only moonlight hanging
Beyond the legacy of the Tang Dynasty’s style
Life is originally a poem
Yet their words are shallow
Not to be carelessly printed
So in my writing
One range of mountains has its own arrangement
I have my own rhythm

The Fence
By Su Yun

When I learned the clumsy flight
or the leap
I went to climb the fence that had stared at me a thousand times
using the mud spots stuck to me to record
every grid I’d filled
Filling up an entire side
including the twisted wire at the end

When I forgot the clumsy flight
or the leap
I went to walk the crossbar that had looked down on me a thousand times
using the downy feathers I’d shed to record
every post I’d rested on
Walking a thousand inches
including the plank in the middle, knocked off by hailstones

When I’m finally powerless, decaying
let my bones
stick to the center of the iron net’s cross
staring at the crowd in the alley—people who’ve learned to survive by compromise
using a mud doll kneaded with feathers
to mark the space at the crossroads

Suyun, 17 years old, is a member of the China Poetry Society and a young poet. Her works have been published in more than ten countries. She has published poetry collections Yang Fa Wan Wu (Inspiring All Things) and Rui Yu Zhe Si (Wise Words and Philosophical Thoughts) in China, and WITH ECSTASY OF MUSINGS IN TRANQUILITY in India. She is the recipient of the Guido Gozzano Orchard Prize of Italy, the Special Prize for Foreign Writers of the City of Pomezia (with the organizing committee hailing her as "a craftsman of Chinese lyric poetry"), the "Cuttlefish Bone" Award for Best International Writer Under 25, and the Creative Award of the Naji Naaman International Literary Prize of Lebanon.

All these poems have obtained the approval of their teachers, who personally submitted them to me. Additionally, consent has also been given by the teenagers themselves and their parents.

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