BEIJING, Oct 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- "We should write our own in our own language. It should be as distinctive as fingerprints. Your poems should have your fingerprints on them…" said visiting poet Peter Fallon when a student asked him how he could write poems like him. And if anything can be said about this Irish bard, it is that he has most definitely left his distinctive fingerprint on the world of verses. On 20 October, Keystone's middle and high school students were fortunate to have an opportunity to experience this Fallon flair in classrooms, and at a splendid evening poetry recital on the same day.
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During what would have been their regular English lesson, grade 8 students engaged in a dialogue with Peter Fallon on everything from farm to friendship. Later, the poet also held a session with students from grades 10 and 11 where they explored various aspects of poetry writing, its challenges, its benefits, and Fallon's own inspirations. Students were moved by his reflections on the meaning of poetry in his life: "When a poem seems to be taking shape I feel most myself. I feel I am my best self at that moment. The idea of writing poems may be strange to many. It is a very ordinary part of my day. It is an accepted fact of my life that I write poetry. It is very mundane, but there is also a mystery to it. Why of all the things we see, think, feel in the day do just one or a few things stay with us or call on us to think about, develop, find shape in the form of a poem? Ordinary and mystery might appear like a conflict to many, but for me it is both of these things."
It is the mystery in the ordinary and of everyday that Fallon brought to life at his evening recital. He read verses from some his poems, such as 'A Rose' that delves into the enigma that surrounds a blossoming friendship, and many others from his collections: The Speaking Stones, Winter Work, News of the World, and Eye to Eye to name a few. Fallon's recital let the audience see his "way of understanding the world," which was also what the poet himself hoped he could achieve by writing poetry - "a credible version of life - convincing, true and authentic." It is such inspiration that Keystone offers its students from many fields and disciplines.
About Keystone Inspiration Series
Keystone Academy strives to invite experts and top professionals in their field of work giving students the opportunity to interact and be inspired to dream and live their dream. Students have had several such opportunities in this academic year alone through the Keystone Inspiration Series, such as the performance by renowned cellist Feng Yao, lectures by Chinese educator and scholar Li Jiasheng, speech by Physical Chemist and President of one of the top Liberal Arts colleges in the U.S., Pomona College's Dr. David Oxtoby, and others. The success of each guest in the Keystone Inspiration Series has been their daring to dream, their determination despite difficulties and their dedication and perseverance in everything they do. These qualities are equally fundamental to Keystone's education model that combines the best of three teaching and learning traditions - Chinese, American and international.
About Peter Fallon
A prize-winning Irish poet, Peter Fallon is a member of Aosdna, Ireland's 'academy' of artists, and Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy. He has been Writer Fellow and Adjunct Professor of English at his alma mater, Trinity College, Dublin, was inaugural Heimbold Professor at Villanova University and held the Burns Chair at Boston College (2012-13). At the age of eighteen he founded The Gallery Press, Ireland's leading literary publishing company, and over forty-six years he has edited and published five hundred books of poems and plays by the country's finest established and emerging authors.
About Keystone Academy
Keystone Academy, in operation since 2014, is located in Beijing, China. It is a non-profit, philanthropic educational venture governed by a board of trustees. The school blends distinctive traditions in eastern, western, and international education, creating a "new world school" that is academically outstanding and a new model of education in China. We learn from and we learn for this enterprising, global community.
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