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England: Poems from a School

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England: Poems from a School by Kate Clanchy

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By Kate Clanchy

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From the bright young poets of The Very Quiet Foreign Girls Poetry Group comes this stirring anthology of poems singing stories of migration and building new homes in England.

Reviews

01 Oct 2018

ReaderReviews

This is a lovely book of poems reflecting a wide range of issues and perspectives related to migration. The full range of emotional states is represented, from ‘stiff upper lip’ through heartbreakingly sad and utterly lost. It is a remarkable collection considering the ages and ethnicity of the authors. They range from 12-18 in age and are recent migrants from places as far away as the Philippines and Nepal to Poland, Syria and Afghanistan nearer home. They have been or still are pupils at a small comprehensive school in Oxford.

What comes through in a majority of the poems is their perceived loss of colour and texture in the world around them. They mourn their colourful gardens and smells of spicy food. To pick out a few poems:

“To make a Homeland” – said so much in such few words:

Can anyone teach me how to make a homeland
Heartfelt thanks if you can, heartiest thanks,
From the house-sparrows
The apple-trees of Syria

And yours very sincerely

Written by a 13 year old Syrian girl.

“The Doves of Damascus” really brought home the agonies of forgetting the memories of the homeland.

“Silence Itself” – amazing

This book takes the reader to a real understanding of the effects on children of being uprooted.

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