Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (Mouthmark): 10

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of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire For the past 70 years, people have been fleeing faster than ever, from the Holocaust, from the civil wars in parts of Europe, from revolutions in the Middle East and Africa, from war-torn lands, from totalitarian governments in Asia and Latin America; all with one purpose, survival for them and their families. And every step of the way they have encountered some form of oppression or mistrust. They are called rapists, murderers, inferior, savages; and the hate spreads like plague thanks to news networks and politicians. People forget these are humans that only want to feel safe, to have food for their family, to get educated and do better. People forget that down the line, someone in their family might have been in the same road, or will be in the future.

Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth - Penguin Random House

The poetry I read is a bit of a mixed bag. I have collections by Rabbie Burns, Edgar Allen Poe, Banjo Patterson and e.e.cummings. I like what I like but there is poetry which I know is great that really doesn't do anything for me...Allen Ginsberg for example.This is a slim debut chapbook of vivid, visceral, violent poems by a U.K.-based writer of Somali heritage who has already achieved widespread fame despite her young age (you may have seen her work featured in Beyonce's Lemonade). I was first drawn to her work some months ago after reading her poem "the birth name", which advises readers to "give your daughters difficult names.... my name doesn’t allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right." (that poem is not included in this chapbook, however). I was casually strolling by one of my friend's profile when I stumbled upon a poem. And it's titled For Women Who Are Difficult To Love. After reading and rereading it, I hopped on to Youtube to find a reading of it. And I did. I listened to it, again, and I fell in love with it, all over again. I can't tell you what I felt while I listened to it, it was like food to my soul. And those last lines...simply eye-watering and strengthening. So, Hayat didn't really recommend this to me directly, but I feel like she did and I'm so grateful for finding this poem(and writer) through her. when she saw how much you looked like him.In the poem "Birds", Warsan talks to her friend Sofia who tells her of her wedding night and how she used pigeon blood to prove her chastity. The poem has a humorous tone and shows the absurdity of this outdated practice of brides having to be virgins and needing to bleed on their wedding nights. After Sofia's husband saw the red sheets, he smiled and then "gathered them under his nose, / closed his eyes and dragged his tongue over the stain." That image, albeit weird, is also quite ironic because the reader knows that it's not Sofia's blood he's so lustfully smelling but that of a pigeon. Nonetheless, the poem ends on a bleak note, as Warsan views Sofia's newly acquired marital status as a form of bondage: "her arms fleshy wings bound to her body, / ignorant to flight."

Teaching My Mother how to Give Birth - Google Books Teaching My Mother how to Give Birth - Google Books

Sad people have the gift of time, while the world dizzies everyone else; they remain stagnant, their bodies refusing to follow pace with the universe. With these kind of people everything aches for too long, everything moves without rush, wounds are always wet.”Warsan Shire juga mengambil sejumput tema lain yang semakin memperkuat isi buku. Sebut saja soal perempuan, kebudayaan, beda sudut pandang antargenerasi, isu pengungsi, serta krisis perang. Itulah mengapa saya katakan bahwa buku ini cukup kompleks. All of these issues are woven into this very slim book of poetry. And somehow, Warsan makes it work. The collection doesn't feel overburdened by its themes. Rather, it feels urgent and crucial. Like I said before, some of the poems were extremely hard to read and elicited very visceral emotions from me. I had to shut my eyes, I felt like vomiting. It made me angry at all of the injustices and horrors that the women in Warsan's life had to face. Meski membaca buku puisi ini dalam bahasa Inggris dan sebenarnya dapat dengan mudah membedakan mana laki-laki ( he) dan mana perempuan ( she), tetap saja harus jeli mengenali tokoh laki-laki atau tokoh perempuan mana yang dimaksud penyair. Jika salah mengerti, perbedaan interpretasi bisa terjadi.