In rural Hunan province, Chinese language teacher Li Bailin is empowering "left-behind children"—those whose parents are migrant workers—by teaching them poetry, providing a unique outlet for emotional expression and self-discovery.

• The Field Poetry Class, a collection of over 80 poems by these children, was published last year, including works by a 10-year-old girl whose father "seldom returns to the nest."
• Li Bailin introduced poetry to her students eight years ago after a student's letter to her father revealed profound family distress, highlighting the children's need for emotional channels beyond academic performance.
• The poems showcase remarkable imagination, with children describing rain as "the tears of a cloud that slipped" and a crescent moon as something to "pick it down for a bite — only to find it tasteless/so I put it back."