Warsan Shire: An inspiration

London-based Somali poet, Warsan Shire, has a way of using her words to stir up familiar, hidden emotions. I have fallen in love with her poetry and her readings are very moving. One reviewer has said: “Her poetry carries the energy of multiple women, the depth of many generations, and the weight of many lives lived.”  

Warsan Shire is a poet, writer, editor and educator who reads her work extensively all over Britain and internationally – including recent readings in South Africa, Italy, Germany, Canada, America and Kenya. In early 2012, the soft-faced and wide-eyed 23-year old poet published her first book of poetry, “Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth” where raw and unsheltered words meet the warmth and tenderness of her spirit.

“I meet someone and pick up on something they have said, or I am taken by the way they laugh and a poem drags itself from that moment. I have seen couples argue in the street and written as if I have followed them home. Imagination is important, but the people are real people. Also, I suppose, anyone you can imagine already exists.”

I would suggest checking out her “warsan versus melancholy (the seven stages of being lonely)” series. It’s absolutely beautiful:

http://warsanshire.bandcamp.com/

Below I have attached two of my favourite poems from this series, but they are perfect expressions of what it is like to be a young woman balancing love and life. Finding yourself should be a priority over finding someone to love. Loving yourself is a clique, because it’s true. It’s not an easy claim to stick to, but it should be something we think about on our quest for meaning. For me the poem is about remembering your worth and not settling for anything less.   

questions for the woman i was last night (the honest conversation)

(https://soundcloud.com/chrstn/questions-for-the-woman-i-was)

how far have you walked for men who’ve never held your feet in their laps?

how often have you bartered with bone, only to sell yourself short?

why do you find the unavailable so alluring? where did it begin? what went wrong? and who made you feel so worthless?

if they wanted you, wouldn’t they have chosen you?

all this time, you were begging for love silently, thinking they couldn’t hear you, but they smelt it on you,

you must have known that they could taste the desperate on your skin?

and what about the others that would do anything for you, why did you make them love you until you could not stand it?

how are you both of these women, both flighty and needful?

where did you learn this, to want what does not want you?

where did you learn this, to leave those that want to stay?

for women who are difficult to love (the affirmation)

(http://vimeo.com/36289832)

you are a horse running alone
and he tries to tame you
compares you to an impossible highway
to a burning house
says you are blinding him
that he could never leave you
forget you
want anything but you
you dizzy him, you are unbearable
every woman before or after you
is doused in your name
you fill his mouth
his teeth ache with memory of taste
his body just a long shadow seeking yours
but you are always too intense
frightening in the way you want him
unashamed and sacrificial
he tells you that no man can live up to the one who
lives in your head
and you tried to change didn't you?
closed your mouth more
tried to be softer
prettier
less volatile, less awake
but even when sleeping you could feel
him travelling away from you in his dreams
so what did you want to do love
split his head open?
you can't make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love.