D6: culture in transit
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  • Home
    • An open letter to the UK Government to keep the UK in the Creative Europe programme
  • About us
    • About D6
    • OUR TEAM
    • NETWORKS
    • Supporters
    • Opportunities
    • Hire >
      • Space Hire
      • Equipment Hire
      • The Big M
    • Our Privacy Policy
  • Artists
    • Current >
      • Marcio Carvalho
      • Stelios Kalinikou
      • Anna Carreras
      • Sara Baga
      • Monika Rikic
      • Dimitris Chimonas
      • Nicola Singh
      • Akeelah Bertram
      • Kia Redman
      • Henna Asikainen
      • Cat Auburn
    • Archive
  • Programme
    • There is Beauty in this Journey
    • Programme Archive
  • Sector Support
    • Pilot Cities
    • Culture Bridges
    • Creative Europe UK
    • Events and Conferences >
      • We Make Tomorrow Summit
      • Common Ground: Culture, Climate and Social Justice
      • Creative Europe, Erasmus+ and Beyond
      • Thinking International 2019
      • Culture 2030
      • Thinking International
      • Tate Exchange
      • Brexit: Ireland, Britain and the Arts in the Years Ahead
      • Beyond The Obvious
      • Continental Drift?
      • Voices of Culture
      • Beyond The Obvious
  • D6: EU
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D6: culture in transit
Picture

HOME IN PIECES - A POEM

When home catches fire
No one waits there to burn
No one braves the water
Unless it’s the last place to turn
Home is in pieces, hastily packed
Home is whatever can be forced in a rucksack
It is displaced family spread farther than rubble
Home is a slowly puncturing bubble
 
And with every border climbed or crossed
Another piece of home is lost
A passport, a photo, a language, a daughter
So much of home has drowned in the water
Or left between interrogations and
Restless nights in railway stations
Home has become a breadcrumb trail
Without route or destination
 
Home is the threat of deportation
From leaders of another nation
Who from the comfort of their home
Or some governmental dome
Puzzle at migration
Like an unsolvable equation
And then without hesitation
Say go back to where you came from. 

 
Dani Watson 
 
Dani's poignant poem, 'Home in Pieces' responds to her participation in 'Forage', artist Henna Asikainen's project which, through foraging walks to National Trust sites connected migrants and refugees to the landscapes that surround our city. Here, away from the city participants shared experiences of landscape, migration and heritage.

Dani Watson is a writer and recent graduate of Durham University. Dani has been taking part in Common Ground through a joint mentoring programme with New Writing North which explores new approaches to cultural journalism.
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