Beyond Borders Scotland and Dove Tales, the Association of Scottish Writers for Peace, collaborated on the Beyond Writing Competition, aiming to facilitating dialogue and cultural exchange through the creative writing and storytelling.    

The competition consisted of three rounds; Inspirational Women, Creative Peace and Beyond Borders.  

This piece by Caroline Johnstone won Round III: Beyond Borders. The competition’s judge, Jean Rafferty of Dove Tales, described the piece saying it was only one of a small collection of poems by her on the experience of being exiled. The poem’s narrator is not from a particular country but the feelings described, the way their own language is embedded in the body and the sense memory, surely speak equally of the experience of refugees from Syria and the Yemen and Sudan.

This was a profound and universal poem, as were the others in Johnstone’s collection, any one of which could have been shortlisted. They were all delicately drawn but deeply powerful in their emotional impact. Beautiful and sensitive writing.

—

My Tongue Remembers

I have not found a new tongue

in this new land.

I have tasted safe places,

then shaped my mouth

to fit words it does not recognise,

sounds that are unnatural

to my ears and bones.

My tongue remembers  

where it came from,  

its silence, questions of next breaths.  

Bilingual scars lie where I bit down  

my stories, tried not to choke  

on deep rivers of grief.