Refugee Poetry Hour; poetry by Lester Gomez Medina and Nasrin Parvaz
On 10 March 2024, TogetherintheUK in partnership with Palewell Press and Freedom from Torture held an online Refugee Poetry Hour. This blog shares biographies of the writers: Lester Gomez and Nasrin Parvaz and their beautiful poetry. They are part of the Palewell Press writers’ community. The poems here are not published by Palewell Press.
Lester Gómez Medina
Lester was born in Nicaragua and raised in Costa Rica.
Lester graduated in Spanish Philology studies which helped him develop a keen interest in short story and poetry writing. In 2014 Lester came to England where he currently lives. In 2018, he took part in Invisible Presence, a project to nurture and develop writers of Latin American background. In 2021, he was selected to work with poet Jane Duran, which resulted in the creation & publication of his first poetry collection: The Riddle Of The Cashew, published by Exiled Writers Ink. His poetry has been published in several journals and anthologies in collaboration with other fellow writers, in English and Spanish.
His work depicts his experience migrating to two different countries, something that he conceives as a process of constant adaptation to cultures, languages and nature.
He is one of the contributors to Home and Belonging, a pamphlet anthology of community-translated poems about migration, pb Palewell Press 2024.
The way I walk
‘Why do you walk like that?’ she grumbled.
What do you mean? – I replied.
‘Like this,’ so she stood up straight,
and put her shoulders back.
She then hunched as before and walked off,
disappearing among my other peers in the classroom.
After school, at home my mother and sisters
asked, ‘How was your first day?’
I raised my shoulders and smiled, still thinking
about that question, ‘why do you walk like that?’
Later that afternoon I stood in front of the mirror,
wondering, ‘How do I walk?’
My reflection in the mirror gave me that look of,
‘Welcome to your new home.’ It then murmured,
‘Nothing is wrong, nothing.’
Migrants
Advance
as if they
were going
down the side
of an active volcano.
They go down like burning
lava, blood from the volcano
that is now forging its own life.
They advance with an inner fire
that they possess, or a fire that
possesses them, they sink their feet
into the sand and ash that the volcano
from time to time erupts in anger. They go
down taking cautious steps, sometimes
looking up, not to pray or raise complaints to the sky,
but to avoid the rocks that the volcano throws. Thus they
advance, driven by the heat of being alive. Ultimately, they
go down knowing that a volcano gave birth to them, made them
brave and set them on the path of life, teaching them to use their
voices of active volcanoes. This is how migrants move through
the world, this is how they make their way. This is how I have learned.
Nasrin Parvaz
Nasrin Parvaz became a civil rights activist when the Islamic regime took power in 1979. She was arrested in 1982 and tortured during her eight years in prison. Her books include ‘One Woman’s Struggle in Iran, A Prison Memoir’ and ‘The Secret Letters from X to A’, (Victorina Press 2018). Her prison memoir has also been published in Spanish and German. Her newest novel was long-listed for The Bath Novel Award 2023. Ten of Nasrin’s poems were published in ‘Songs of Freedom – An Anthology by ten Iranian and Afghan Women Poets’, (Afsana Press, 2024).
Her works have appeared in: Freedom from Torture, The Guardian, The Morning star, The Times, Times Radio, Byline Times, Sky News, The Mirror, Metro, Huck magazine, Lacuna, Refugee Radio, Exiled Writers Ink, Book Muse, Memoria, Feminist Review and more.
She has also translated poems from Farsi into English that were then published by ‘Modern Poetry in Translation’ and other anthologies. Nasrin has also published a novel in Farsi about the 1988 massacre of prisoners in Iran to which she was an eye-witness. She has given talks on the violation of human rights in Iran, both in Farsi and English, in a number of countries.
Nasrin studied for a degree in Psychology and subsequently gained an MA in International Relations. She then completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Systemic Theory at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, where she worked in a team of family therapists for some time. .Nasrin is a member of Exiled Writers Ink (EWI), and the Society of Authors (SOA).
The following poems are published in Songs of Freedom, An Anthology by Iranian and Afghan Women Poets. Published by Afsana Press in 2024.
Nasrin will have a short story in So Many Unavoidable Journeys, a prose anthology about refugee journeys, pb Palewell Press Summer 2025
Woman Life Freedom
Shot, handcuffed to the flag rod.
He asked for water
the guards held a cup of water
out of reach and said, ‘Take it.’
His mother came at dawn
with a bowl of water.
She was shot.
His sister came
with a bowl of water.
She was shot.
His cousin came
with a bowl of water.
She was shot.
His neighbour came
with a bowl of water.
She was shot.
His lover came at dusk
together with women.
Each holding a bowl of water.
Frightened
the guards ran away.
That sunny afternoon in Cyprus
The face of a man born
in a different part of the world
brings you to mind
I need to call your name
have you walk towards me
you were holding my hand
we were talking
I jolted violently
the sound of a gunshot
your hand slipped from mine
you bent
double
flattened
on the pavement
your red shirt turned black.
Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre
You wake up to the sound of
the first early morning plane
landing at Heathrow.
Then you go back to your dreams
thinking about the passengers in the plane
wondering if any of them are like you.
Traveling on a false passport.
Hazily you remember
that some rich man
has bought this prison
all the inmates included
just like serfs or slaves
and you try to figure out
how anyone makes money
holding you prisoner.
