Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad   

Of butterfly wings, turquoise streets

Staff Reporter

Poet Lemn Sissay takes children on a joy ride through wonderland

SHARING THOUGHTS: Lemn Sissay interacting with Pranava School students during a poetry session organised by the British Council in Hyderabad on Thursday. PHOTO: SATISH. H.

HYDERABAD: It is not just his first book for children -- `The Emperor's Watchmaker' -- that endears Lemn Sissay to children.

The enthusiasm that bubbles within each of his words, the zany movement of his hands, his bright and glowing eyes and his contagious smile as he reads out poems are crucial too.

And that facet of his was in full play as Sissay took children from various city schools into a different world, one with floating butterflies, silver rays of rain cascading down, of the watchmaker's `tick-tock' staccato, of streets that were painted turquoise, here on Thursday.

Reading session

Interacting with children at a poetry reading session organised by Pranava - The School and sponsored by British Library and ITC Hotel Kakatiya Sheraton, the born-in-Ethiopia brought-up-in-Britain poet left his young audience asking for more after they had discovered a new side to poetry.

The best part of the session was perhaps after Sissay read out one of his poems that told the story of an imaginary person sitting in an imaginary factory, fitting wings to butterflies.

A class VI student, hair in neat braids and a cute smile, asked him: "Is there really a butterfly manufacturing factory?"

And Sissay did not disappoint her. "I have actually been looking for one in all the countries that I go. I think there is a secret one somewhere. I will tell you as soon as I find it," he said wide-eyed.

Rebellious streak

As the colours and the characters of his poems, complete with the rebellious streak that is at times hidden and otherwise obvious in his poems, came alive in the session, the discussion went into rhymes free style and the beautiful world of poetry.

One of the tiny poetry lovers wanted to know when Sissay had started writing. "Inside my mother, even before I was born," was his reply.

Sissay, who said he had gone through various forms of racism several times, also had the children singing along as he told racists that they were `colour-blind and fools to judge people by the colour of their skin.'

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