Sharjah Children's Reading Festival highlights poetry role

Sharjah Children's Reading Festival organized a literature evening on Monday to discuss poetry writing for children, attended by Lebanese writer and poet, Hassan Khalil Abdallah, American poet and children book writer, Kwame Alexander, Russian writer, Lyudmila Sukhostavets and presented by media host, Linda Abd El Latif.

The participants confirmed that, poetry trains the ears to recognize simple music beats, transform elegant expressions through creative metaphors, adding that children learn from poetry as much as they do from stories.
 
Hassan Khalil said that, it is important to put poetry in children literature, because it help them to response to rhymed words, and he uses poetic rhymes in his poems, which are recited in form of stories. He added that, creativity and amusement are important elements in children poetry, and rhythm isn’t an essential element in the poem, especially if the poet is capable of surprising the child with simple poetic expressions.

Lyudmila Sukhostavets confirmed that, poetry makes us feel life, and drives us to exploration, and it enters children hearts in many ways. She explained poetry dimensions in Russia, which can be found in, family, friends and nature poetry, sarcastic poetry that teaches moral values and educational poetry that, delivers information in rhythms and rhymes.

Kwame Alexander said that, he has been writing poetry for 20 years, and he writes for all ages, but he is much happier when he writes for children, as they reflect their deep compassion for language and metaphors. He added that, the importance of poetry comes from its ability to raise questions about the world, and reading it makes us better humans.