Royal Stanzas IV: Warsan Shire
Photo Source: The New Yorker
Warsan Shire. The Somali-British poet and writer whose voice is heard so magnificently through Beyonce's newest visual album, “Lemonade". While much of America has no knowledge of Warsan and her poetry, most of Beyonce’s fans (who are already well-versed in feminist literature and the greats that walk amongst us) could pinpoint Shire’s voice immediately. Beyonce did an excellent job of juxtaposing poetry to music to visuals and to emotion and, especially, to Warsan’s voice. Shire, born in 1988 in Kenya to Somali parents, is a prolific writer who discusses immigration, migration, longing for identity, and the intriguing and often intricate stories of the women she knows and has known. Shire is well known for her first collection of poems “Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth”, which was published in 2011 and shares those stories of women and immigration. She has since been named the Young Poet Laureate of London in 2014, received Brunel University’s inaugural African Poetry Prize in 2013, and was Queensland, Australia’s poet in residence in 2014. Shire’s poem “For Women Who Are Difficult to Love” is one of our favorites from the young twenty something writer.
“For Women Who Are Difficult to Love”
Though Shire is gaining more buzz because of her recent feature on Beyonce’s “Lemonade”, her voice has always echoed a piece of woman in every one of us. She speaks for those of us who seem to be wondering why we can’t be enough for our men and why we try so hard but are still too difficult to love. She represents every woman who sees their mothers in themselves and tries to both fight the feeling yet embrace it at the same time. Warsan reminds us of how difficult it is to leave your home and be transplanted in a foreign land where you don’t look like anybody and your ways are not like those around you. She speaks for every woman who has ever been forced or felt obligated to kiss the boy who became a rapist. Let's keep our eyes open to see and ears ready to hear who she’s relating to next. Check out some of her poetry while you're waiting.
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2) Biographical Information: The New Yorker