JRS-UK Community Blog

Photo by Robert Couse-Baker from Foter.com

One of our refugees, Charles, wrote a poem about this month, February.


The Month of February
by Charles



The month, the contrasting month of February
You are the shortest month of year
You can be long short rainy or wintry

I saw a thousand souls falling in love
On your fourteenth day
I saw a thousand souls proposing
Wedding on your twenty ninth day
The month of February the lovely month of February

You are the month that determines
How the year would be
You are the month that says
This the gap year to be
You are the month of love and lovers

Now, Valentine’s time has come
We will roses being sold exponentially
We will cards being sold at any corners for some

I don’t know how much longer
I can stay as bachelor
The month of February always
Reminds me that there is something wrong
The month of February is not poor

So Carpe Diem, married, single, rose bearers and rose sellers
February you make the world covered with roses once for all
But February you are also a month of battles and cryers


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A photo by Elvis Payne from Foter.com

This poem was written by 'Muler' who took part in our series of creative writing workshops with English PEN earlier this year.

Cold and Rain
by Muler

Cold and rain
is my patience
because it remind me
my past experiences.

Cold and rain
Is my experiences
For many reasons.

Cold and rain
Is my frustration
Because he is madness.

Cold and rain
He give me bad welcome
when I wake up on the morning.

Cold and rain
he is the one reminded me
my friends on my time
been sleeping on the street.

Cold and rain
he is my best friend
because he always is with me.

Cold and rain
when I think of you
I always remember
London. When I think of you
I think of London.

Cold and rain
You give hope when you show
You for light
Like the light on the fridge.
To me it is not be my part.

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A poem by one of our refugee friends.

When did your name change
From a proper noun to a charm?

It’s three vowels like
Jewels on the thread of my breath.
Its consonants brushing
My mouth like a kiss

I love my name
I say it again and again in this summer,
I see it it, discreet in the alphabet,
Like a wish

I pray it into the night
Till the letters are light

I hear my name
Rhyming, rhyming
Rhyming with everything.

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I REMEMBER

In the morning bathing was a hell.

7 o’clock in the morning after bath

She dressed me up and served me breakfast

The school was miles away

And I had no money to pay for my bus ticket.

In the morning walking to school was a hell.

A long sandy road in the noon

Full of hot sand, I remember.

My feet got burnt

When walking back home from school.

However the drop of rain can be heard

And puts a smile on my face as I can walk

Without feeling the heat of the sun in the noon.

DESTITUTE

Each journey entails a hundred possibilities.

I have been thinking all my life

To make my way to this land,

Many of us called the rich land.

But when I reached

This so-called rich land,

It’s like a white storm,

The whole land is so cold

As Arctic

With no home, no shelter.

These two poems by ‘Naz’ appeared in the New Londoners magazine for their Refugee Week 2013 special supplement. You can read an interview with their author and more information about the partnership between JRS-UK and English PEN charity that ran our creative writing workshops here: www.thenewlondoners.co.uk

We have been lucky to run more creative writing workshops with English PEN, the charity working for freedom of expression. They are very popular with the refugees who participate in them.