Earthquake Inspires Poets in Chengdu

Posted on May 20, 2008

China's massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake that killed tens of thousands in Sichuan's province also greatly rattled the city of Chengdu, China. You can see a detailed map of where the quake was felt here.

NPR says that Chengdu is known as a "a city of writers -with an especially strong community of poets." NPR reports that the massive earthquake that struck China last week has already "started filtering into local writers' works." They tracked down a couple of writers who have already authored poems about the tragedy.

One of the poems is by 45-year-old He Xiaozhu who was working on a novel on the second floor of a teahouse in Chengdu when the earthquake hit. The other poet listed on NPR's website is Wu Qing, who was visting Shanghai at the time of the earthquake.

You can read and listen to both of the poems here.