'Strong in Their Minds': Young People's Poems across an Ocean

This article stresses the quality of universality within young people's poetry. The writer uses the poetry mainly written by children of Pakistani origin living in Pitsmoor and Fir Vale in north-east Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, as a stimulus for the creative writing of children of the Mohawk nation in the reservation school of Tyendinaga Territory in Eastern Ontario, Canada. The similar qualities and themes of both sets of poems illustrate both the internationalism of the imagination, and a critical consciousness within children that stretches across oceans.