Introduction to Connection collection
Roz Doe
The following five poems were written by young women who attend the Young Roots and Refugee Council’s weekly young refugee women’s group in Croydon. Most had never written a poem before, although some liked reading poetry from their own country. We met in the group twice and also had a trip to the Southbank where we walked along by the river and wrote down what we were noticing on the way. We visited the Southbank Centre, where we wrote some poems together about this experience. We also visited the Poetry Library, where staff had displayed poetry books in the first languages of the young women for us. Being able to read poetry from their country of origin was valued by the girls and a few of them joined the Poetry Library so they could borrow these books.
Shells was written by a young woman from Albania in a writing workshop focused on nature. We started by choosing an object and A was attracted to a shell. She wrote this poem about how holding the shell during the workshop reminded her of shells from a beach she visited with her family in Albania as a child.
Change was written by a young woman from Somalia. She started the poem in our workshop on nature when she chose to write about the tree, she used to sit under outside her family’s home when she would worry about the situation in her country and wonder what her future would bring. The second part was written after walking along the Southbank from London Blackfriars and is focused on her experiences of being in London.
Connection was written by two young women, who shared what they each bring to the young women’s group they are part of, such as food and music they like. They use images of nature, drawing on the hope associated with spring and new life, to evoke how being part of this group makes them feel alive too.
A Meaningful Day was written by a young woman from Vietnam, who has recently arrived in the UK. L wrote these lines in Vietnamese during a walk along the Southbank one sunny, but windy Autumn afternoon. She used her phone to translate the lines to English and then enjoyed reading Vietnamese books, in the Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre.
Walking from Blackfriars was co-authored by a group of young women after we walked from London Blackfriars to the Southbank Centre stopping along the way to pay attention to what we could see, feel, hear and smell. For some of us, this brought memories of others places we had been or lived in the past. The girls enjoyed sharing what each of them had noticed to bring their separate experiences together into one piece.
Shells was written by a young woman from Albania in a writing workshop focused on nature. We started by choosing an object and A was attracted to a shell. She wrote this poem about how holding the shell during the workshop reminded her of shells from a beach she visited with her family in Albania as a child.
Change was written by a young woman from Somalia. She started the poem in our workshop on nature when she chose to write about the tree, she used to sit under outside her family’s home when she would worry about the situation in her country and wonder what her future would bring. The second part was written after walking along the Southbank from London Blackfriars and is focused on her experiences of being in London.
Connection was written by two young women, who shared what they each bring to the young women’s group they are part of, such as food and music they like. They use images of nature, drawing on the hope associated with spring and new life, to evoke how being part of this group makes them feel alive too.
A Meaningful Day was written by a young woman from Vietnam, who has recently arrived in the UK. L wrote these lines in Vietnamese during a walk along the Southbank one sunny, but windy Autumn afternoon. She used her phone to translate the lines to English and then enjoyed reading Vietnamese books, in the Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre.
Walking from Blackfriars was co-authored by a group of young women after we walked from London Blackfriars to the Southbank Centre stopping along the way to pay attention to what we could see, feel, hear and smell. For some of us, this brought memories of others places we had been or lived in the past. The girls enjoyed sharing what each of them had noticed to bring their separate experiences together into one piece.
Roz Doe co-founded Young Roots in 2004 and was most recently working as Senior Caseworker there. She has been writing poetry for the last seven years. After becoming a mother in 2015, Roz initiated a women’s writing group, which (prior to lockdown) met monthly in a community centre. In 2019, Roz was selected to be part of The Writers’ Place Poets Development Programme at New Writing South. Roz has poems published in South Bank Poetry magazine.
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