#refugee poems on Hello Poetry

Zywa Jun 2023

[ Your despair against ]

Your despair against

my hope, nose to nose, only --

a door in between.

After a rejected asylum application
Film "Die middag" ("That afternoon", 2023, Nafiss Nia)

Collection "Between where"

#hope #despair #asylum #refugee

Zywa May 2023

[ Here too, policemen ]

Here too, policemen

coming to deport me to --

a death of torture.

After a rejected asylum application

Film "Die middag" ("That afternoon", 2023, Nafiss Nia)

Collection "Between where"

#asylum #refugee #dangeroflife

Zywa Jan 2023

Travelling / Travelling

Flight fantasies, vacation
'Mind your step'
Security procedures, waiting at the gate

I close my eyes
my thoughts take the autowalk
to destinations with a runway

The lock of the jetway fails
one meter before the cabin door
'Mind your step'

.....Flight fantasies, security
.....'Tomorrow I'll get there'
.....Security procedures, waiting at the fence

.....I close my eyes
.....my thoughts take a high flight
.....to a future on the other side

.....I land in a camp again
.....at a higher fence, a closed gate
.....'Tomorrow I'll get there'

Collection "Blown sand"

#safety #refugee #flight #journey

Zywa Nov 2022

[ In the new country ]

In the new country

I follow a friend, stepping --

within his footprints.

"Går efter en vän" ("Walk behind a friend", 2009, Jila Mossaed)

Collection "Specialities"

#change #process #immigration #newlife #refugee

Farah Taskin Nov 2021

Refugees

"Only the wearer knows
where the shoe pinches"
Unfortunately
the self-centred societies
don't care about them
Consequently
their sufferings are being unnoticed
The increasing rate of refugees
is aggravated by violence.

#rohingya #syrian #refugee

Simon Piesse Jul 2021

Walk Home

Walk in familiar slippers
Walk when walking’s spent
Walk on hollow highway
Walk in a birthday dress
Walk under frigid stars
Walk with ancestral song
Walk with right
Walk with wrong
Walk in spite
Walk in pity
Walk in the backstreets
Walk in the news
Walk in borrowed city

Home is leaving
Home is a journey
Home is coloured pencils
For a distant classroom
Home is a wilderness
Home is an army
Home is inquisition
Home is another way
Home is a haven
Home is a promise
Home is a rose bed
Home is tomorrow
Home is hard
Home is good

Simon Piesse

This poem is inspired by the continuing ill-treatment in thought, word and deed, of refugees in the UK, notably children.

#refugee #children #walk #walking #home

Graff1980 Feb 2021

Refugee

Look at me,
I am desperately
trying to get you
to see my humanity.

I deserve dignity.
My struggles
do not diminish me.

Traveling, running,
drowning, falling,
hope is still calling
so, I move on.

Being a refugee
does not make me wrong.

Have you ever been
as strong as the heat
and desert winds?

Do you know
the kind of fear
that turns the slightest rumble
into another bomb,
or the nightmare
of knowing
most strangers
won’t bother showing
a single particle of compassion?

I am just an atom
blowing in the air,
here and gone
before you ever
noticed I was there.

I know life is not fair,
but why don’t you care?
How about a little grace
and an ounce of decency,
to highlight your supposed
superior morality?

#refugee #humanity #empathy #compassion

Ayesha Dec 2020

Aylan Kurdi

on these waves, quiet crawls
war, with fish, plays; stillness laughs
since you, no more, do.

it's not fair, Aylan.
why'd you leave mother again?
for that heartless land

Ghalib weeps in sleep
says you went to see baba.
Aylan, why'd you go?

out the sea’s warm arms?
—that shore is cold as people
people cold as ice

sleep on Aylan— they
can hear now; you, your people.
Syria and you.

you've sparked up a flame
but don't you see? they love flames—
smokes, blasts and rubbles

can't you read the winds?
say they, stay far from humans
say they, please come back

wont you please come back?
to these safe waters, Aylan.
we're calling for you.

we're calling for you.
you who the fireflies await
we're calling for you.

we're calling for you

#aylankurdi #syria #refugee #haiku