Mother-1980s
Afraid
Was my mother when she would walk the streets of Calgary
Scared
When people would look at her with disgust at school
Terrified
When she would have henna on her hands during school to be made fun of
Ashamed
When people wouldn’t let her expand her culture outside her household
Determined
To not let these people get into her head and let them win.
Strong
Persevered through those days and stood tall
Beautiful
Because she is a beautiful Muslim woman.
Father-1990s
Hard worker
Came to Canada at the age of 18 to live a better life
Clueless
Didn’t know the language that everyone spoke
Determined
To start a life in Canada for future generations to come
Insulted
People told him he couldn’t do it or get anywhere in life
Persevered
Proved everyone who doubted him and called him racial slurs and became something
Proud
Is what I am of my father who went through so much for us kids so we could have a better life.
I dedicate this poem to both of my parents who went through so much in their early life living in Canada. How my mother, who was born in Canada, was treated just as bad as my father who came here when he was just 18. I wrote a poem about them because it shows how different society is now. The way they were treated, I have never been treated like that and I can’t imagine being treated so horribly. I wanted to show people that not only was this my parent’s live, that it was also others lives as well. Scared to even talk about religion without someone saying something horrible about it. My mother wasn’t able to do a lot of things at school without someone saying something offensive. Even in her time having a nose piercing was considered “weird” and she was always made fun of it whenever she went to school. Getting through the day with having to hear racial slurs, being insulted by wearing religious wear. I dedicate this poem to two people who went through so much and came out as the strongest people I know.
Nur, Ayse. “Anime.” Pinterest, 11 May 2017, www.pinterest.ca/pin/521713938073629988/.
Dear Raina
I thought this was a very powerful poem that really spoke to me, as I have endured racism and so has my parents. I really liked how you used the perspective of your parent’s experiences and made a short but very relatable poem.
-Savannah
Thanks so much Savannah. Your compliments really encourage me to write more stuff in the future and feel more comfortable sharing it with the rest of the class
From, Rania
Dearest Rania,
Wow. I commend you for writing such a powerful and personal piece. This moved me especially since you’re telling your parents’ story. I know how it feels to be culturally different from others, and it’s particularly difficult watching your parents be judged or discriminated against. I loved the simplicity and bluntness of your poem because it really emphasized the truth of racism and how there’s no way to make it flowery .
In terms of improvement, I’d love to see you write a third portion of the poem to unite your parent’s stories. You had beautiful parallelism between the two but to write a third one would really put it together. For your blog, I’d also advise you to make a page for your free choice so it’s easier to find, 🙂 .
Fantastic work and I’m so grateful to be your Drama TA!
Love,
Liza
Dearest Liza,
I really appreciate how to commented on my poem and gave me suggestions on how to make the poem more stronger. It really gave me a new perspective on how I can make my poem have a deeper meaning to it. Also, thank you for your compliments about my poem and I actually believe that not everything is flowery and sometimes things need to be said in a blunt way so that is why I chose to write it as so. I’m grateful that u are my Drama TA.
Love, Rania
Dear Rania,
What a beautiful and well-written poem! I love how you decided to write about your parents experience with discrimination once they arrived in Canada. I too have faced discrimination walking in this world and I could relate personally, because I am also Muslim and I have experienced the same rude remarks from my peers when I would wear henna to school. The struggles you wrote about can surely connect to most readers, especially if they are immigrants, like your father. Great idea!
To help improve, I would suggest that you write more about your parents journey in the city and write more details about how they felt in those situations. To do that, maybe you should write about how your parents felt in the situations, such as when your mother would get made fun of, because of the henna on her hands, in more detail, to enhance the word you used in the beginning.
Overall, this is such an amazing poem that touches on some topics in life that many people can relate to and have experienced in their own lives. I’m sure that a lot of the readers will be touched with your piece! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!
Love,
Hiba 🙂
To HIba,
Thanks so much for your suggestion on how to improve my poem I will take that into consideration the next I do such a thing. Also thanks for reading my poem and liking it. I think a lot of people go through these types of things and I wanted to tell people what my own parents went through who lived in Canada. Again thanks so much for taking the time to read my poem
Love, Rania