Today’s Teenagers are Discerning Speakers
According to the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA), Afshin Ala, a poet and researcher, participated in a poetry critique session for members of the ‘Qaf’ poetry club. The session, held on Wednesday, November 18, 2025, alongside the club’s educational course titled ‘Qafiyeh’ (Rhyme), also saw the presence of Gholamali Haddad-Adel, head of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature. Ala praised the young poets present, stating, “All of you are good and distinguished poets.”
Referring to his long-standing connection with Kanoon (Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults), he continued: “Forty-some years of my fifty-some years have been intertwined with Kanoon; I was a member since childhood, and even when I wasn’t formally working there, I attended most of its centers and programs. After the revolution, we teenagers of the 1980s experienced a significant surge in contemporary poetry, driven by a revolutionary approach. However, in subsequent years, this trend gradually diminished, and I was always concerned about teenage poetry, a sentiment I observed in Kanoon’s programs and camps.”
The poet deemed the establishment of the Qaf poetry club a crucial and influential development. He remarked: “Over the past year or two, we have witnessed a serious and promising movement at Kanoon, and today’s gathering demonstrates that teenage poetry is once again thriving. These children are discerning speakers who understand that poetry is not merely recreation or craftsmanship; it is the engineering of words and concepts. In each of your poems, precision in word selection, structural coherence, and thematic focus are entirely evident, with some verses exhibiting significant beauty and depth, indicating that literary education is diligently pursued at Kanoon.”
The Qaf Club (an acronym for Pinnacle of Literature and Culture) is responsible for fostering and developing the literary talents of children and teenagers across the cultural and artistic centers of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults.
