By Kusumanjalee Thilakarathna
In June, Little Stars hosted an online art and poetry competition to bring out the creativity in children celebrating World Oceans Day. Among the young poets was Musnath Mohideen, a nine-year-old student from Bathuriya Vidyala, Kattankudy, who submitted a poem with great meaning and beautiful words. He emerged first in the poetry category.
Musnath is a budding poet who found inspiration to write poetry from his own sister. He believes that if we get together as a team, ocean conservation will not be a difficult task. Here’s what he shared with us.
Musnath, can you introduce yourself to our audience?
I’m Munsbath Mohideen from Kattankudy. I am nine years old and I am studying in grade four at Bathuriya Vidyalaya. There are four members in my family: My father, mother, sister and myself. I love to write poems, read books, watch cartoons, and play cricket during my free time. My ambition is to become a scientist in the future.
You mentioned that one of your hobbies is reading books. Can you tell us what your favourite book is?
Yes. Reading books plays a major role in my daily routine. My favourite book is Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. I love that book because it is a story of a boy living in the forest with animals, which I find very interesting. And the way Kipling has described the details in the story helps me to imagine everything in the story as pictures.
Since when do you write poetry?
I actually started to write poems as the schools closed due to the pandemic. I have a lot of free time, as I don’t have to go to school. I use this free time to improve my writing skills. I have written poems before, but I feel the best poem I have written so far is the one I submitted to the “Little Stars Oceans Day Poetry Competition”. It’s the one I like the best from what I wrote.
What inspired you to write poetry?
My sister has a collection of her own poems and has won many poetry competitions. My main inspiration is her work. And I want to write poems like her and become a young poet.
Is there anything we have to be careful of when we recite poetry out loud?
Yes, of course. We have to be careful of our facial expressions and the pronunciation of the words. If you don’t break the lines accurately, the poem might give out a different meaning than what the poet meant to say.
Where do you get ideas to write poetry?
As I have already mentioned, my sister guides me to write poems and by reading also gives me new ideas. Deep and careful observation of the environment contributes a lot to get new ideas to write poetry.
How did you feel when you heard that you have won the Little Stars Ocean Day Poetry Competition?
I got to know about the competition through my father. He showed me the post you had uploaded to your Facebook page and encouraged me to take part in it.
I was totally excited when I heard that I won the competition. I was in seventh heaven and I felt that much happiness. It was a great experience.
Why do you think it’s important to learn new words? Does it help to improve the language you speak?
In my point of view, learning new words is the most essential step towards improving language skills. It helps us to enrich our vocabulary power and practise those new words in our daily life. The vocabulary power will give us the confidence to speak those languages.
What is your favourite cartoon?
My favourite cartoon is Super Why. Whyatt is my favourite character in it, as he is the leader of the super readers. I come across new words at the end of every episode, which is why I love watching Super Why.
Do you have any message to our readers on Ocean conversation?
I really got the motive to write this poem because of the ocean pollution that we hear of and sometimes see. Whenever I see garbage dumped in the seaside and the dead marine creatures, I feel very worried. I know as a small child I can’t contribute a lot to ocean conservation, but as a team, if we all join together, surely we can protect the ocean and the marine creatures. So I kindly request you all to help me save the ocean by cutting down the usage of polythene and plastic to the minimum extent.
THE WINNING ENTRY
The Ocean – who is my friend
By Musnath Mohideen
The great blue ocean,
Who is one of my friends
Is being dragged by pollution
To his end.
He provides life and livelihood
For all the creatures around the world
And balancing the food chain,
Which is essential for existence.
In the eyes of a fisherman,
He is a source for life betterment
To catch the fish
For people to have on their dish.
In the eyes of an entrepreneur,
He is the pathway
To export the goods
For gaining much profit.
In the eyes of military men,
He is the victim
To test their missiles
For making their country a superpower.
But what we all do
Is destroying him and the creatures he shelters
For our selfish motives.
The ship with fuels
Catches terrible fires
Which dips in the ocean
To destroy the creatures.
Ocean is God’s gift
Which we must treasure
From the destruction that is swift
For everyone’s pleasure.
I’m brooding on the possibilities
To protect my friend
But what can I do?
As a small child What can I do?