2 . In the early hours of March 23, about 12 hours before our treasured 12-year-old son died of a rare form of brain cancer, I climbed into his hospital bed, _________ him in my arms and recited Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky.

My child was no longer _________, but I hoped and believed that he could sense my presence and that my voice would _________ his wildly beating heart.

My son had been _________ with the words of the poem by _________ me reciting it to him almost every night before going to bed. He loved the _________ of the “beamish (神采焕发的) boy” as, with a short sword in hand, the boy takes on a strong man several times his size.

My son was also a passionate _________. But with many surgeries, rounds of radiation and medications _________ most of his time, he could _________ read on his own. Therefore, I ________ to read to him. And it was during the reading that I found that poems could relieve my __________. They offered an anchor to me during unpredictable and painful times. They also helped me prepare for the arrival of the final time.

Then it came — at 12:52 am on March 23, my son’s heart stopped beating forever. Despite my __________, I was still overwhelmed by grief. Then I received a message from my friend. It was Raymond Carver’s Late Fragment: “And what did you want?/ To call myself beloved, / to feel myself beloved on the earth.”

It __________ me a bit, because I was __________ that even in my son’s darkest hours, he was always __________ — and still is. And thanks to poems, I was able to get through the pain and get on with my life.

3 . The following are recommended picks from NPR staff and trusted critics.

Good Night, Irene

by Luis Alberto

It’s historical fiction based on Luis Alberto’s mother, who served as a Red Cross volunteer in World War Ⅱ. These so-called Donut Dollies made doughnuts and served coffee in a truck, providing comfort to the soldiers. They also drove to the front lines during the battle. This novel is a comedy featuring characters that present friendship and courage in tough circumstances.

Homestead

by Melinda Moustakis

Homestead is a tale of what it was like to be brave enough to build a life and survive in rough Alaska. Melinda also excellently captures the complexities around a moment in American history that is reduced to a line or two in schoolbooks. The characters in Homestead are escaping troubled pasts tied to forces out of their control.

The Great Escape

by Saket Soni

The Great Escape begins in 2006, when Soni, a labor organizer, receives a midnight phone call from a Mississippi number. The caller is one of 500 foreign workers who paid $20,000 to a firm that promised green cards if they would help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. But the green cards were a lie. There’s a daring midnight escape of the men from camp, then a march to Washington, D.C.

The Porcelain Moon

by Janie Chang

Set against World War I in France, it tells the story of two women, who break general expectations and restrictions to find their love and lives. Camille, raised outside Paris in poverty, and Pauline, who works for her uncle at his Paris shop, are trying to avoid an arranged marriage. It’s a richly researched historical fiction book.

6 . The books written and published in the 1920s remain on the “best ever” lists. Here are 4 books that everyone should read.

The Great Gatsby

The themes in the novel reflect the sudden change in the character of America itself, and in some ways it’s among the first major modern novels produced in this country. The novel also makes a new and powerful concept clear at the time: The American Dream, the idea that self-made men and women could make themselves into anything in this country.

A Farewell to Arms

The story is one of a love affair interrupted and dogged by events beyond the lovers’ control, and a central theme is the pointless struggle of life — that we spend so much energy and time on things that finally don’t matter. Hemingway masterfully combines a realistic description of war with some abstract literary techniques, which is one reason why this book endures as a classic.

Ulysses

When people make lists of the most difficult novels, Ulysses is almost certainly on them. The one thing almost everyone knows about Ulysses is that it employs “stream of consciousness”, a literary technique that seeks to show the inner monologue of a person. James Joyce wasn’t the first writer to use this technique, but he was the first writer to attempt it on the scale as he did.

Mrs. Dalloway

It takes place on a single day in the life of the main character, and it employs a dense and tricky stream-of-consciousness technique, roaming (漫游) around to other characters and point of view. Mrs. Dalloway is concerned with using these techniques to make the characters clear and definite. The use of stream of consciousness is deliberately disorienting in the way it skips through time.

7 . The hustle and bustle(喧嚣)of life, walking back and forth from the ideal to reality, and the inner confusion hidden behind a social mask-these daily experiences are recorded by Chinese youths in lines of poetry online. Recently, 124 Bilibili internet users shared their works in a poem collection.

One blogger on Xiaohongshu who goes by the nickname Gehuaren is one such poetry lover. The twenty-something girl not only writes poems as a form of entertainment in her spare time, but also improvises(即兴创作)poems for others at night markets in Yunnan. As a street-stall poet, Gehuaren often writes pieces of poetry quickly based on themes from customers. Once the poem has been completed, she refuses to change her work because she feels her poems reflect her first reaction. For her, everything in the world, no matter trivial or significant, can serve as her poetic inspiration. “A glass, a tree in the dawn or a person who once talked with me…these all could become themes for my poems,” said Gehuaren.

With free writing with a regular rhythm and broad themes, her poems strike a chord with many young people online, helping her gain over 190, 000 followers. Many have made comments “I feel healed by your poems because I can find beauty from unnoticeable things and in turn, slow down to reflect on my life.”

Apart from poetry, various means such as vlogging and photosharing can be used to record moments of daily life. But young people consider poetry to be the best way to express them. “Taking photos or vlogging can just show the object or emotions in real life. Yet poetry, which can be used to excite the imagination, shows the beauty of daily life, ”an 18-year-old said. So when he is inspired by the beauty of daily life, the boy writes it down into lines of poetry and then shares them with his friends on his WeChat Moments.

No matter why young people write their unique brand of poems, they are attempting to take every moment in lives seriously, face their lives bravely and actively express themselves.