I'm not too cool to admit: I had a bit of a stalker moment when Warsan Shire was in the country earlier this year. The poet was in Cape Town (along with a bunch of other Americans who are famous on social networks) for the Sex Money Power conference that no Capetonians really seemed to know about until it happened. Anyway, I really just wanted to see if her presence would make me feel the way her words do. And then I saw Stacy-Ann Chin (again) and forgot all about Warsan. The reason I'm writing about Warsan is a simple one, really. You know how I feel about dream hampton? Well, she adores Warsan and that's how the Kenyan-born Somali poet who is also a Londoner drifted onto my radar. I was totally ready to be like whatevs about her because I haven't read a poem or seen a poet I liked in so many years but Warsan completely blew me away. It was this poem in particular that threw me for a loop:
i think i know what we did wrong - (the realization)
i think i know what we did wrong
we loved like two people
who did not know God.
(as if we had not used
every prayer
every surah
every ayah
asking God for
something like this)
subhanallah,
what a shame.
And it was this poem that made me want to read more. Good thing she recently published her work then. Now, there are people who are on the Warsan bandwagon because it's the cool thing to do. Then there are those people who just genuinely dig her. I don't care what side you're on. If you liked I Think I Know What We Did Wrong (The Realization) then you may like her book, Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth. This anthology of poetry is an extension of the Warsan we already know through tumblr and twitter. The work is about her faith, women, home and family. I've ordered mine so I haven't read it yet but if you guys have, I'd be interested to know your thoughts.
