Warsan Shire

"Literary pointillism on a funked-out canvas."

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

“What is she hungry for? What can you fill her up with? What can you do, that you would not do for me?” & “Did you tell people that songs weren’t the same / as a warm body or a soft mouth? Miriam, / I’ve heard people using your songs as prayer, / begging god in falsetto. You were a city / exiled from skin, your mouth a burning church.”

shen

*when the men come, set yourself on fire.

Maya 

To my daughter I will say,

*when the men come, set yourself on fire.

Chourouk

Again fire, I found you. Thank you Warsan Shire and Mashaalah!

Léa

It was one of the most beautiful thing i have ever read. At first, because of the title mostly, i was a bit sceptical but from the first to the last poem i was moved by the words and some felt really personal to me. The last line might have been the one I loved thé most: 'when the men come, set yourself on fire'.

azliana aziz

Matthew Royal

"I want to make love, but my hair smells of war and running and running. I want to lay down, but these countries are like uncles who touch you when you're young and asleep."

Intense erotic imagery transitions into the intense loss she has for her old life, old country, and family. She makes you feel her trauma like it's fresh, and how it ages with her.

Joycelyn Ghansah

Omg! I love this! It's relatable, sad, comforting, and traumatic all in one. It's beautiful. I highly recommend.

Shareca

Warsan is absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. The way she uses words, the way her poetry is written is beautiful. I aspire to be a beautiful butterfly like her - in a lot of ways. She is absolutely one of the great poets I have read in the last decade. I would give this and all of the other pieces a read.

Trish

Last night in bed I swear I thought my body was on fire.

What a lovely and eloquent little book. The tone, subject matter, and emotion in this one really stands out among the numerous modern poetry collections.

jakuzi

maybe some things should be leave to time so that the wounds heal day by day. and when the time comes, they will be able to bloom on me, i believe. there is a saying, "vernem nidahen." like this. and symbolism. this world is a huge pile of symbols, i realized this more often as i read this book.

Maggie Gordon

I am a sucker for zine-like books, and the cover for Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth is fantastic. It's a short book of often angry, challenging poems, and a great read for a white lady like myself who is trying to read outside of my comfort zone.

Liana

Nicki

Reread Aug 2021 

Whenever I get in a mood, I reach for this book and it helps to center me. It's very hard to explain but there is such a comfort I find in Warsan's words. 


 First Read Feb 2018 

To my daughter I will say,
'when the men come, set yourself on fire'.

Yea....

Alexa Jade

“She was splintered wood and sea water.”

I.got.chills.

Lisa-Marie King

What a stunning, amazing, beautiful and harrowing collection of words, lives and memories. 

So many feeling flood through me reading this.

celeste

To my daughter I will say,
'when the men come, set yourself on fire'.

Hayley 📖🌈💜🌸

Not bad. 
Some of these are quite confronting, but some of them are quite good.

Rachel

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth is a collection of poems about growing up a woman, being a refugee, love, and relationships. They're short and simply beautiful.

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

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