On World Poetry Day, when the whole world celebrates the day of spiritual beauty, the glorification of the most intimate and great eloquence, the literary studio “Towards the Sources” gathered at the Faculty of Philology, Psychology and Pedagogy of the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”. According to its leader and inspirer, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Senior Lecturer of the Department of General Linguistics and Foreign Languages Nataliia Bondar, by uniting around the literary word, nurturing their own unique poetic talents, the student youth of the Poltava Polytechnic can loudly declare themselves, share the nuances of their own poetry creation and get comprehensive support of like-minded people.
A significant event for the literary life of the Faculty of Philology, Psychology and Pedagogy was visited by the well-known Poltava poetess Yuliia Styrkina, the eloquent name of the creative meeting with whom testifies to the hopes accumulated by young Ukrainians for a new spring, full of realized dreams and bright ideas. “All springs believe in spring!” – the lines of the talented Poltava resident’s song sound in the unison thoughts of millions of citizens, inspiring a generation of young talents to new poetic achievements.
During the meeting, full of warm, relaxed communication, Yuliia Styrkina talked about her own literary development, the search for ways to be heard in the modern linguistic and artistic space, as well as shared some “secrets” of poetic creativity with the artistically gifted young students of the Poltava Polytechnic. Lifting the veil into the author’s unique world, the poetess enthusiastically read early and later poetry, the special rhythm, melody, deep life and psychological meanings of which did not leave anyone present indifferent. Moreover, the participants of the literary studio “Towards the Sources” were interested in the significant moments of Yuliia Styrkina’s biography, asking about the first admirers of creativity, published books and how under the pressure of circumstances not to break spiritually, not to lose one’s own individuality, unique “creative handwriting”. Separately, we would like to note the unique charm, the special mood that accompanied the literary gathering, the personal charisma of the poetess, and the profoundly meaningful creative instructions given to beginners.
In the performance of the author poems about a warm colourful scarf that will never become a noose around someone’s neck, a red dress of the restless Mary, in whom Ms. Yuliia herself is sometimes soulfully reincarnated, reflections on difficult realities were heard. Original songs were written for individual poems, in particular, the audience watched video clips of Liudmyla Kostenko’s song “I like you”, Andrii Shakin’s song “I will be snow”, “Love, take care of me”.
Recalling the first poetic steps and the formation of the creative “I” in literature, the already experienced writer said: “I wrote poems from childhood, I wrote just for myself, for my own pleasure, as they say, “in a drawer”.” I didn’t show anyone my own creations, I was a little shy, I didn’t think that I would write at all. But it so happened that I was very lonely and needed to find something that would help me express myself, distract me. I began to write poems constantly, published them on Facebook, at first they were read by one or two dozen subscribers, acquaintances, friends, then they began to share them in various poetic Internet communities. My audience slowly but steadily began to grow until I had half a thousand regular readers.
Of course, as a poetess, I am extremely pleased with the attention of fans of my words, who sometimes write about how they would like to read something new, something just written more often. Something like, I tasted a cup of coffee – I read a new poem by my favourite author, the next day – I opened it again and read something cool afresh. I know for myself that this format works perfectly in modern realities, since book publishing is far from an easy and cheap hobby. Therefore, I do not plan to publish a new collection yet, I am not yet morally ready, as they say – It is not the time. Thank God, I have the opportunity to share my creativity, please my fans, and develop as a person.”
In Poltava resident’s creative work, there are two previously published collections of poetry “Poemed Immature Wines” and “Kites of the City Mavka”, the photo illustrations for the first of them were made by poetess herself. Having graduated from an art school, she has a great talent for drawing, it’s just that she draws for a long time, and photography is another creative hypostasis of Ms. Yuliia.
“The poems are really immature, because at the beginning of my work, the internal censor was still deep asleep and it seemed that everything I wrote was something extremely exceptional. Everything I had, starting from my school years, I collected in this first poetic “swallow”. It was because of it that I was accepted into the ranks of the National Writers’ Union of Ukraine, respected poets liked the collage of my poetic style. By the way, I used my own photos for the illustrations, as I am fond of photography.
The second collection was already proofread by two philologists, I also had a completely different approach to the written poems and I reread everything very carefully. That’s why the book “Kites of the City Mavka” was already highly professional. “Kites” in poetic language are drawings, notes, letters from prison, since I often associate a modern person with a prisoner,” – said Ms. Yuliia.
The first pages of Yuliia Styrkina’s creative biography did not miss the language issue either, because the poetess began writing in Ukrainian much later.
“For the most part of my life I wrote in russian, then I started to write in Ukrainian as well. Since 2014, after the infamous events in the east of our country, a kind of breakdown took place in my mind, and I firmly decided for myself that my creativity would be more needed in my native land than somewhere over there, with a violent neighbour. I will say frankly – this language transition was very difficult, especially at the beginning, because using Ukrainian is one thing in everyday speech, office management, but it does not work so quickly with creativity.
This process was quite painful and took a lot of time, now it has become a little easier, but even now I am in constant self-improvement, I make sure that there are no russian words, I check the spelling of certain words in different dictionaries. For poets, especially beginners, such creative doubts, constant work on individual style is a completely normal phenomenon,” – shared the invited guest.
Anna Moroz, Kseniia Zelenenka, Tetiana Riabiko shared their poetic achievements with the audience, as it was interesting and informative for the talented student youth of the Poltava Polytechnic to listen to Yuliia Styrkina’s creative instructions as an already established writer. According to the poetess, creativity is a unique fire that cannot be extinguished, if a person has it, it must burn.
Head of Literature Studies, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Senior Lecturer of the Department of General Linguistics and Foreign Languages of the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” Nataliia Bondar notes: “It is very gratifying that in such extremely difficult times, despite everything, a spark of creativity burns in the young souls of the gifted youth of the university, once again confirming indomitability, faith in the coming Victory. We are sincerely convinced that the beauty of pure, enlightened souls will still dispel the black clouds of war in the fertile sky of Ukraine.”
At the end of the event, students and teachers exchanged impressions, had an informal conversation with the poet Yuliia Styrkina and agreed on further creative meetings. After all, it is extremely important for young authors to feel comprehensive support and hear advice from older literary colleagues.
“Creative Spring” at the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” continues to inspire new special achievements, motivating talented young students of the university to take up the quill, recording the experienced life moments, pleasant emotions and reflections on what they heard, saw, read in their own poetic works. Despite the difficult trials that befell our young European state, a new generation of young talents opens its soul to the new, wonderful and unknown.
Literary studio “Towards the Sources” invites everyone gifted, caring and in love with words to its cohort. In the future plans – to continue meetings with famous artists, poetry master classes at least once a month.
For more detailed information, contact the Head of Literature Studies, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Senior Lecturer of the Department of General Linguistics and Foreign Languages Nataliia Bondar (Room 319 of the Central Building of the Poltava Polytechnic).
It should be recalled that the first meeting of the book club “ReadUA” took place in the “Polytechnic” stud hub.
Earlier, female documentation studies students dedicated a creative project to the outstanding Sixtier-poetess, female philology students popularized the creative heritage of Kobzar in German, and university graduate Artem Loik presented the lyrical collection “My War” as well as held a charity cultural evening.
Media Center of
National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
