Dana's Question for the Conference Paper

Why are children significant as a poet in the contemporary world?

It has not been very long since women had entered into the world of poetry. They had had much less opportunity to have their own voices in the world than men had. However, there are people who still do not get much respect or attention to be listened: children. It is flourishing not only for children to express themselves through various ways, including poetry, but also for others to see the world with a new perspective. Children’s lively minds do not linger within a safe boundary of conventions, forms, and rules; their unpolluted eyes bring us back to our essential and instinctual beings without having prejudice; and their sincere voices provide us a fresh and appreciative perspective for our everyday life. Since we all have gone through childhood, we have our inner-child to sympathize with other children’s voices. Thus, children’s art (poetry) can be universal even when they are from different cultural backgrounds. They evoke us to re-think about questions or phenomena that we have forgotten or neglected in our busy, egocentric lives. Moreover, inviting children as a new poet in the contemporary world naturally brings intimate collaboration between adults and children to explore various ways to convey children’s transient, potential poems. Their poems may not initially exist on a paper, but may exist within conversation, play, or other ordinary activities. Their ways of collaborating can be diverse, but must contain an equal level of power between adults and children to draw the most potential from children and give them lives in the world without distorting pure voices. We need the world where children speak their own stories, not adults write pseudo-pure poems for children.

Questions or Issues

- What are adult’s roles in collaboration? How and how much should they interfere to convey children’s poems?

- What are possible ways to convey, show, publish, display, or perform their poems? (Color, visual, children’s handwriting?) (The relationship between aural and visual?)

- What would be an environment that could help children fully, freely explore their potentials and naturally express themselves?

- What are children’s natural tendencies? What do they innately like to do? (Observe their natural tendency, instincts—making holes, putting their fingers in holes, building their own nests, etc.)

- Have we been constricting their creative possibilities? (square paper format, lines or squares on notes, etc.)

- How are children’s own poems different from children’s poems written by adults?

- What is poetry? What is the function of poetry for children?

- What does it mean in the contemporary world that children are considered to be a new group of poets?

- How can we balance between preserving pure, raw nature of children and polishing their works to be more accessible for others?

- How can we form more intimate relationship with children? (The way of being with them, listening to them, etc.)

- The ways and roles of education and/or educators. (Episode of writing my journal with a 4B pencil to sincerely express my depressed and confused emotion, and not being understood by my teacher.)

References

1. Book: Men-Nal Men-Nal Oori Man Ja Rae (Words from Aram Kindergarten Students, music by Changwoo Baek, and illustration by Eunyoung Sul) (Literal translation: Every Night, You (Mom and Dad) Command Me to go to Bed while You are Staying Awake)

2. Essay: Children’s Life is a Poem, by Ohduk Lee

3. Essay: Eyes of the young poets, by Mihye Kim

4. Essay about the book, Greedy Pot, by Hyunji Si