CARRY ON

A collection of poems written by immigrant students at the Paul-Gérin-Lajoie-D’Outremont high school, in Outremont, Quebec, Canada.

Originally published in French as Bagages—mon histoire, this Canadian import features 15 poems by young immigrants from many corners of the world: Moldova, Iran, South Korea, Israel, Philippines, Uruguay, Pakistan, China, Venezuela, and the United Arab Emirates. They are deeply personal and expressed in different ways. “Now I advance / Slashing my chrysalis,” declares Dohee Kim, from South Korea. “I have gained the future / I have lost the past,” reflects Hernan Farina Forster, from Uruguay. “Thank you, FaceTime / For showing me their tear-streaked faces / Even here in Canada,” writes Arad Panahi, from Iran. The poems are marked by very universal themes, predominantly sadness over the people and places left behind and uneasiness over what lies ahead. Alongside the poems are striking full-page portraits in muted sepia tones on cream-colored paper. While some of the portraits correspond with the author of the accompanying poem, most do not. It must be presumed they are portraits of other young immigrant students at the school, not included in this poetry anthology. The English title of the book plays on the double meaning of the phrase, expressing so simply what it means to be an immigrant. Immigrants are the sum total of the baggage they carry on with them as well as the future they forge as they carry on with their lives in their new country.

A sensitive and heartfelt voicing of the immigrant experience.