There are those poets whom, when their words touch paper, tremors are felt across the earth. Warsan Shire a Kenyan born Somali-British award-winning poet, is one of those. She strikes her pen with a sublime swish, and nothing remains the same.
Photo taken at a literary festival in Kenya, in 2013
Beverley-R and Warsan-L
Her chapbook poetry collection, 'Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth,' is a genuine interaction of the intimacy of women's individual turmoil in conflict situations, displacement, families, and the questions about women's bodies that never seem to have the right answer.
The simple connection with images like in, 'Questions for Miriam Makeba,'
Did you ever tell people that songs weren't
the same as a warm body, a soft mouth?
..
Did you know of the girls who sang into their fists
mimicking your brilliance?
...
This homage to Miriam Makeba is in itself a song, a conversation with the musical icon, who, in the poem, is not a wife, mother or sister, but is a singer. She is defined by her brilliance and not by her reproductive ability.
Warsan is bold and bodacious and her observation is sharp, as she peels off layers of pretense and hypocrisy to celebrate the realness of women.
In the poem, 'Maymunn's Mouth,' we read of the subtle changes that overcome us when we relocate to another place. It begins with the way we speak, the way we dress, and then we begin to think that our old traditions and loves should be replaced by the new.
And yet it is not as simple as forgetting and adjusting, because there are memories, families and friends involved in this entire process.
The title of the collection itself, is mind-blowing, reflection of ho the world has actually turned on its head. There is no justification in situations of war; no justification at all, when children and women suffer unbearable torment.
Published by Flipped Eye publishing in 2011, copies are available on Amazon.
Reviewed by Beverley N Nsengiyunva
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