POETRY: Sujata Bhatt - Search for My Tongue

On my book shelf, you’ll find various anthologies of poetry; Browning, Rossetti, Hardy; and just to prove that I’m “down”, I even have the Heinemann book of Caribbean poetry; however, my favourite poem is not among this collection formed over recent years: my favourite poem is one that I read fifteen years ago in an English class of a boys only catholic school: Sujata Bhatt’s poem ‘Search for my Tongue.

This poem is simply beautiful. I can remember, all those years ago, feeling instantly connected to Bhatt’s words; wondering whether my mother had felt that same disconnection when she first moved to Britain from Ghana in her early twenties; the poem also reminded me that my "mother tongue" was non-existent, and that I craved the ability to speak the language of both my mother and father’s homeland. Putting the subject of language aside, I feel that this poem is for us all; as most of us have experienced displacement, and feelings of losing ourselves due to new surroundings.

What's your favourite poem?