"No one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land"
That line from the poem “Home”, by Somali-British poet Warsan Shire, brings home the stark reality of the horrifying decisions refugee parents must make.
HERE read by Warsan Shire herself
No-one flees their home without a pressing reason – usually to escape persecution, torture or a real threat of death.
Home by Warsan Shire Read by Sir Jonathan Pryce https://youtu.be/8KEU74cnU8g
More information about the writer, with the poem in full HERE
Poem written by Pavlo Vyshebaba May 2022
to my daughter
Please don’t write to me of the war,
Tell me instead of the gardens around,
Do the grasshoppers sing the songs we adore?
Do the snails slowly inch upon sprouts?
Tell me about the words people use
To name their cats in faraway nations.
The only thing I want you to refuse
Is to hide between the lines your frustrations.
Do cherries or apricots bloom near your dwelling?
If they give you a bouquet of flowers,
Don’t talk about your escape from the shelling
Tell them we lived here the best life of ours
Let Ukraine become the land to explore,
Invite foreign friends and every person you meet.
We will show everybody after the war
How grateful we are for our children’s peace.
Translated from Ukrainian by Anhelina Yurkiv
Poem by Benjamin Zephaniah
Other information
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