Teenage life lines

STEREOTYPICAL teenagers have heads crammed full of soap-operas and bubblegum pop, scorning politics and their parents in equal measure.

They're certainly not sitting in their aunt's house in Pakistan, composing poetry about their family and friends and worrying about the state of international politics.

But that's how the career of 15-year-old poet Umay Shah began -- and now the Beardwood High School pupil, of Wimberley Bank, Blackburn, has won a prize for her work and has become one of the youngest writers to be published on an American website.

So what was it that made her turn to poetry as a way of expressing herself?

She explained: "Two years ago I went to Islamabad for eight months. I went to live with my aunt because my mum wanted me to appreciate all the things I get here -- like free education.

"It made a big difference to me. It was a different environment and I missed my home. Everything over there was much more difficult. Over here schools are quite laid-back, but over there you have to work constantly.

"It was very hard for me because all of my family was over here. In Blackburn, when I get in from school I normally sit down in front of the TV, but I couldn't do that over there. I think that was how my poems came -- because I had nothing to do. They were a way of expressing myself."

At first, Umay didn't even realise the lines she was scribbling down in a small notepad were poetry.

Upon her return to England, however, one of the first things she did was take them into her English classes.

"When I came back, I had so many things written down," she said. "I showed them to Mr Hodkinson, my English teacher at Beardwood, and he said: 'You've got some talent here.' After that I started writing more and more of it."

Encouraged by her teacher's words, Umay went on the internet to see if she could find a forum for her writing.

She said: "I found a website called poetry.com which was running a competition for 20-line poems.

"I entered it and a few weeks later I got a letter from America in the post, telling me I was one of the award winners!

"They invited me to attend a presentation ceremony in Washington. Unfortunately I couldn't go because it was my brother's wedding."

She may have missed out on the awards ceremony, but Umay remains one of the youngest contributors on the website, which publishes poetry from across the world.

She said: "There's me and a 12-year-old boy who write for it, but most of the writers are in their 20s and 30s."

And her success, as well as her predilection for writing about her family, has won her the full support of her father Anwar and her mother Taswar.

"At first my family didn't think it was a big deal," she said. "It wasn't until I got that letter from America they realised how important it was to me.

"But they're really proud of me and my mum got all emotional when she read a poem I'd written about her."

As a rebuff to those who think today's teenagers are too narrow-minded, Umay's concerns are notably wide-ranging.

"Generally my influences are the things that go on around me," she said. "I write about my family, my friends -- people I love.

"Some of my poems are really personal. Others are inspired by TV and films.

"When I watch something like Pearl Harbor, it affects me emotionally and I write a poem about it.

"When the war in Iraq was going on I got a lot of poems out of that. No-one realised how much it affected young people. They think it's adult business and nothing to do with the kids."

This somewhat condescending attitude towards young people is something that annoys Umay.

"The Government is always saying it wants an input from young people, but they don't actually want to listen to what we have to say," she said.

"I can remember watching the TV and hearing somebody say, 'This war cannot be stopped'.

"I felt so angry. I thought, 'If you can cure an ill person and stop a baby crying, how can you say you cannot stop this war?'

"I wanted to do something about it, but all I could do was sit and write and let my emotions run out."

Since she returned to Blackburn from Pakistan, Umay has written hundreds of poems.

"It's always the first line that starts me off," she said. "Once you have that first line, it flows from there.

"I go into my own little world and it doesn't matter where I am. I think of some poems when we're on a long car journey and I go over and over them in my head, so that I can remember them and write them down."

Umay's ambitions for her career are as varied as her interests, although she definitely sees writing as forming part of her future.

"I'm not sure I want to write as a career. I think I'd rather keep it as a hobby and go into law or something," she admitted.

"I think I'd eventually like to write a book, but I don't think I'm at the stage yet where I could do it.

"The most I can write are short stories, but I haven't done anything with those yet."

In the meantime, she's happy to express herself in poetry -- and her lines which draw on the complexities of growing up have proved a particular hit with her friends.

"I like my friends to read my poems because they understand where they whole poem's coming from," she said.

"They know exactly what I'm trying to say, because they know me as a person."

You can read more of Umay's poems on www.poetry.com