In twelve lines, Shire rewrites origin. The daughter becomes the mother’s midwife for memory. A poem about un-doing trauma: walking out of the sea, un-eating, un-loving. It’s the closest poetry comes to a rewind button on grief. 3. “The House” “My mother’s hands are not beautiful / but they know how to make / a home out of a war.”
I’ll be honest: I’ve read the PDF. Many of us have. teaching my mother how to give birth pdf
That line belongs to the British-Somali poet Warsan Shire, and it appears in her searing, unforgettable debut pamphlet: . In twelve lines, Shire rewrites origin
We are still seeing refugee crises, still witnessing the silencing of women’s pain, still inheriting trauma from generations that couldn’t speak it. Shire’s poetry doesn’t offer solutions. It offers witness. And sometimes, that’s more powerful. It’s the closest poetry comes to a rewind button on grief