Zhou Yingde, a 54-year-old peddler from southwest China's Sichuan Province, has spent over three decades weaving poetry into the daily rhythms of collecting scrap and selling goods -- a quiet testament to how the ordinary can cradle the extraordinary.
He returned to his hometown 16 years ago to care for his mother, bought a used truck with 20,000 yuan, and began a life on the road. Between stops, he steals moments under trees or by rice fields to write. More than 600 poems have come from these still hours, some of them published.
His home mirrors his two lives: scrap downstairs, poetry upstairs.
The journey began in 1991, when a school friend brought him a poetry collection. He was 19. Poetry found him, and never left.
"It was their campus poetry journal. I was hooked by the beautiful words inside. So I started copying their style, trying to learn. My early stuff was pretty clunky, but it still felt like a win. It made me think I could actually do this," said Zhou.
Poetry opened a window to a world Zhou had never known, and with it came a desire to write.
He read, he wrote, and a dream began to grow. But life was hard. At 19, he left home to work odd jobs -- carrying cement, hauling bricks, laboring at power stations. Work consumed him. Yet poetry never left, and he wrote about it all.
"That year, I walked through the noisy city -- on one shoulder, my hometown, on the other, myself. Steel pipes, couplers, hammers -- they hollowed out my memories. Home could only be found in dreams," he wrote.
Missing his family while working far away, Zhou wrote a poem for his mother, titled Spring Sunshine: "The sunlight is thin -- as delicate as a cicada's wing. Through it, I see my mother stepping alone into the twilight." With gentle, restrained words, he gave voice to his love and longing for her.
Over a decade ago, Zhou turned to the internet to find poetry communities. It was in 2015, that he met Wei Guangwu, a poet from his hometown Neijiang.
"He shared a couple of poems he'd written during his time away from home. After reading them, I felt he had a natural gift -- the writing was simple and honest. There was struggle in his words, but never despair," said Wei.
Encouraged by Wei, Zhou started refining his writing and began sending his poems off to publications.
"There's a real sense of fulfillment when I complete a good poem. It's a joy that feeds the soul," said Zhou.
Publication in newspapers and magazines gave Zhou a boost of confidence and a growing sense of accomplishment.
His passion for poetry deepened, and over time, he won several literary prizes in his region -- and his work began to reach a broader audience.
Zhou said he owes the most to his wife, who has quietly supported him through his journey from an unknown writer to a published and award‑winning poet.
"Writing poetry is a way for him to find meaning. Sometimes I give him a little praise -- just to show my support -- and it makes him really happy," said Jiang Li, Zhou's wife.
In 2015, Zhou was accepted into both the Zizhong County and Neijiang City writers' associations. From then on, he has had more opportunities to learn from fellow poets and teachers -- and as his writing matured, so did his aspirations.
"His poetry is earthy and real -- full of the flavor of daily life. He takes care of both his aging parents and his kids, and he has no steady income. Everything he earns comes from driving through villages, buying and selling odds and ends. That makes him different from most of us -- and that's exactly what we respect most about him," said Gu Jiande, head of the county writers' association.
"What I really want is to bring out a book of my poems someday. That's the dream that keeps me going," said Zhou.
Turning scrap into verse, peddler from rural Sichuan finds poetry in daily life
