“Immigration is an attempt to bloom and blossom and brighten a new place with the colors and scents you've brought with you. It is an attempt to remember where you are from, and the place that made you, and also unfurl to the possibilities of the new place you call home.” HomePoetryPoemMemoryImmigrationImmigrantsPossibilitiesMigrationRemembering Book:Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice Source: Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice
“Does anyone ever want to leave their home? The fresh fruit that drops from their backyard? The neighbors who wiped their snot? Does anyone ever want to believe they won't come back? To the dog that sniffs their heel, to the bed that holds the echo of their body? Is there relief in pretending it is temporary, that one day it will be safe? That I will once again wave to the kind school bus driver; that I'll hold Carline's baby before he grows, having never known me? They have no palm trees in New York City, no leaves to shade me, to brush against my cheeks like my mother's hands. There is no one over there, alive or buried, who held me as a child, who cradled me close, who fed me from their table, who wiped my knees when I fell & scraped them. Here, despite the bad & ugly, is my home. & now I wish that I could stay. Does anyone ever want to leave the place they love?” HomeImmigrationImmigrant ExperienceEmigrationEmigrant Experience Book:Clap When You Land Source: Clap When You Land
“Immigration is learning to stretch into a bridge, backward and forward, one limb in each place, learning to hold tight to traditions and customs and names and memories in one hand, and with the other hand let go and lean in to a place you hope will see you for all the beauty that you bring.” PoetryMemoriesBeautyPoemImmigrationCustomsPossibilitiesStretchingTraditionsBridging Book:Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice Source: Woke: A Young Poet's Call to Justice