Mayflower 400 Southampton

Tanka poems by young people

To support KRYT, Audacious have worked with ArtfulScribe to commission Susmita Bhattacharya to create a digital resource, teaching students how to write poetry about Mayflower 400 exploring themes of:

Self-identity.
Identity of Southampton.

Relationships with the sea. 
Journeys & migrations.
To celebrate people of the world.

Southampton as a gateway to the world. 

One

We leave everything

Looking for a brand-new life

Waiting over sea

My hand tightens round mother’s

I won’t let them see my tears.

– Hannah

Two

Stomach lurches as

The sea monsters play their games

Waves stand giraffe-tall

My thoughts are fired, am sinking

But little boat is stubborn.

– Hannah

Three

I hate these faces

They are all unfamiliar

Seeming too perfect

No one else here looks like me

I feel like the odd creature.

– Hannah

Across the Sea

The deepest blue road

Swirling around the ship’s skin

A skin made of wood

Sheltering us inside her

But our home will be elsewhere.

– Louise, aged 16

Tanka

This place I call home

Red, green, black and white are the

Colours of my tribe, we

Are the indigenous one.

Watch out when the Burbas come.

– Hiba, aged 14 

Tanka

Skyscrapers tickle

The sun awake, yellow cabs

Honk morning chorus

I am surrounded by noise, 

People, yet I am alone.

– Katie, aged 16

Paris

To get there I must

Board a train with my own car

To then drive for hours

To be in the place of romance

And history – to make my own.

– Isobel, aged 15

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