Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

Evocative and startling, this feels like a memoir in verse. Shire's poems are consistently strong; my favorite is "The Kitchen," maybe because it's so much quieter than the others and therefore stands out. I think this collection reads best all in one sitting, consumed in a great gulp, leaving the throat stinging and dry as a bone.

I stumbled up on Warsan Shire and her poetry a few years ago on Twitter. I was a fan of her tweets prior to reading any of her poetry. A line or two of one of Warsan Shire's poems was tweeted into my timeline last night and on a whim I decided to download Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth. These poems are still speaking to me and I'm listening.

Warsan Shire has one of those poetic voices that stir instead of soothe. These poems will linger and hover around you and in your subconscious for days, weeks, and years to come. There are some lines that kick and punch others that pinch. These are poems that inspire and empower.

These are a few lines from some of my favorite poems from this collection:

Bone
"What is she hungry for?"

Beauty
show more "Anything that leaves her mouth sounds like sex. Our mother has banned her from saying God's name."

Ugly
"...her hands are a civil war, a refugee camp behind each ear,..."

My absolute favorite was the last and shortest of the collection, "In Love and In War." I read these poems in one sitting. I plan on reading them over and over and over again. show less

i seem to be in the minority that i wasn't an incredible fan of this. some of the poems were absolutely gorgeous ('ugly' is a particular stand-out), but a lot of it felt padded. it's not a particular insult--of course there is padding in the chapbook of a young poet, but it brought down the quality of the book for me.
what stood out, though, stood out. shire polishes her poetry, as if it were a pearl that needs to be refined, and creates experiences of herself to a reader who, most likely, has never met her (a poem--or at least, the poetry currently in vogue, the confessional, rather than the narrative--is, more than any other literature, a glimpse into the author).
shire's verse is surprisingly sparse: it neither experiments nor uses show more the lush description that has been explored since imagery. in some ways, this is a relief, but in other ways, it highlights the conservatism of the chapbook--it bores, much of the time. it is almost a chore to get through, to get to what is good. it is almost worth it, but it is the almost that holds it back.
regardless, i'll almost certainly buy her full-length collection: shire is obviously a talent, and it is just as much my fault as hers (if not more) that i failed to construct meaning in "teaching my mother..." where so many others did. show less

listened to the audiobook of warsan shire reading her poems aloud, wow. just so beautiful, emotional, powerful, it brought me to tears so many times. although the main theme was her experience with immigrating and being a refugee, i related so much to her descriptions of not belonging — with a single place/country, with family, with men, etc. favorite poems: “Grandfather’s Hands” and “Ugly.” a must read!!!

Strong and original poetry, with each word and sentence vividly evoking lives and places and experiences. Her language is unflinching, and densely packed with emotions. A sometimes harrowing, sometimes brilliantly illuminating, collection of poetry that cuts really close to the bone.

I don't know how I feel about this poetry book.

I was not enjoying myself while reading it. And I really didn't like the way some poems made me feel.

And yet.

I think I will reread it in the future. Probably more than once. At different times in my life. It will be interesting to read my notes from my then younger self and see if I agree with them.

I'll be the first to admit I'm no connoisseur of poetry. In fact, it's possibly my least favorite literary genre — the desire is there, but when I read it there's simply no appreciation. So when Read Harder announced its categories for 2022 and there was once again a poetry task, I began hunting around for something that work but not be too taxing for my poetry-challenged brain. I found a recommendation for this work while searching for "Poetry for People Who Don't Like Poetry" and it was a decent fit (bonus: also tiny!). The author is of Somali/Kenyan origin and writes from some of her own lived experiences, some clearly painful, and perhaps also those of others near and dear to her. Given some of the difficult subject matter, I'm show more not sure if this is a book meant to be "enjoyed," but I did my best. show less