How poetry helps this young Afghan refugee ’empty’ her pains and share her dreams

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• Judy Woodruff:

  Today, October 11, is the International day of the Girl.

  And, tonight, we hear from one girl, a young Afghan poet who left her country a few years ago with her family for security reasons.

  Aryan Ashory now lives in Germany in a refugee settlement. She shared her thoughts and writing with the "NewsHour"'s Student Reporting Lab as part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

• Aryan Ashory, Poet:

  Writing poem, it makes me to feel free and to empty my pains and my stress that all hide in my body.

  I just take my pen, I took my notebook and I try to write something down, thinking about issues about — like, for example, about what's happening in my country or what's happening to me right now.

  Don't kick us like a ball. Try to be one of us for a day. Try to understand us. We are not a game for you that, when you get tired, you can leave us. Try to feel us. We are tired of this much moving from place to place. Try to be one of us for a day. I'm sure you cannot understand how our days are nighting. I'm sure you cannot expect to see your children held back from education and playing with the garbage all around. I know you cannot. I know you cannot be one of us, even for an hour.

  Me as up as a refugee girl, personally, I see my soul like a 35-years-old. I'm not old, but the stress of living in a country makes me old. Our destination is a question mark. I just wish — and I just wish that no one's life should be a question mark.

  I just wish and wish that no one's life should be carried in a backpack all around. I'm not different, but I am a refugee. I'm not a terrorist, but I'm just forced to be in your country, forced to leave my beautiful homeland.

  I could say my biggest hope is to see my family living in one place, not to just move around. It's really damaged our mental health. If we do not live in central — in specific place, we are, like, always carrying our live in our backpack from place to another place.

  So it's very difficult for all of us. And it's one of my hopes for a future, to have a specific place to live inside.