89plus Marathon 2013: Warsan Shire - A Reading
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Warsan Shire reads her poems, Ugly, The House, The Diet, What We Own, and Conversations About Home at the Deportation Centre. Warsan Shire is a Kenyan-born Somali poet, writer, editor and educator who is based in London. In 2011, Shire released Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth, a poetry pamphlet published by flipped eye. Shire's poetry featured prominently in Beyoncé's 2016 feature length film Lemonade. The 89plus Marathon brought emerging practitioners, born in or after 1989, together with influential thinkers of all generations.
“Then the men we try to love say we carry too much loss, wear too much black, are too heavy to be around, are much too sad to love. And then they leave, and we mourn them, too.”
Those words were like a movie, I could see em wen you say em. Very moving and touching. Somalia is Africa's best poetry State.
somalia ❤❤❤❤❤
Warsan Shire's work never ceases to move me. 'Conversations about home' has to be the most powerful poem I have ever read about tahreeb. Especially the line 'I hope the journey meant more than miles because all of my children are in the water' all I can say is I LOVE HER!
“Our men do not belong to us”.... I had to pause here and give myself some time 🙌🏿
Thando Joka man!!!!!!!!! I felt that too 😢
I will never not remember how much Warsaw's words saved me years ago, and still today. nothing short of amazing. beautiful women.
I don't know if you'll see this but you've changed the person I was... Every summer for the last 3 I have introduced students of mine to your work and they absolutely love it. Thank you so much❤
“Conversations about home at the deportation center”... no words 🙌🏿
Our men do not belong to us. But my body is mine, my good hands are mine, my fillings that glitter when I tilt back my head to laugh - mine, my stretch mark that glow under the blue light is mine, my hair in the morning - mine, my face in the mirror - mine.
I take back my heart, it's mine. Whatever I choose to love is mine, whatever I rename, reclaim, redefine - mine. Even when my loneliness grows teeth - MINE.
*feelings
I'm not you, but I am, being mexican, I feel your words like my own, like coming home, you give everyone a voice even if we are not you, what you speak to a certain extent mirror many of us, I love the how you speak and play with words
vanessa navarro viva mi Raza. We have suffered for generations in a land that was ours to begin with.
Now Warsan Shire, I read with a sense of greed. Every poem and every line fills me up and satisfies, and still I crave more.
I love women who spoke so boldly, and are so assertive. ♥️
She is one of us gal we r proud of sis
Warsan Shire is one of my biggest inspirations.
For Warsan Shire
Every moment I read your work
It cast on my mind a face painted with fear,
A body buried in cheap scents,
And a mouth sealed with numerous words.
Every moment -
I see an utopian tree
Bracing the balance within sun and the moon,
I see your unfading Arabian dialect -
Telling me they are the father of word coupling.
Every moment -
I see the black at diaspora
As an unwanted being
Like a bin of unhealthy words
Like canvas of ugly murals,
Like a hungry bird searching the bin.
Oh Warsan I see you in your works
And you works is an orchard I cool my nerves all days.
© Fasasi Rasheed Abuu Faheem
July 2019
The images you made, are just unfading. I read your book and I still want to read more.
Warsan is such an amazing poet. Congrats girl on Youth Poet Laureate of London! I'm so proud of you.
The house is definitely in my top 3 favourite poems
Very much enjoyed your poems and truthful reading. Your honesty helped me engage with your poems.
I, too, am a poet ( and also a fiction story writer which I’ll elaborate shortly ) but for now let me say I write mostly Japanese format poems i.e. haiku , senryu, tanka/kyoka, haibun etc. I hope you don’t mind me sharing a Tanka and a haiku dedicated to Matshuo Bashō’s frog with added insightful commentary by the late AHA founder and poet Jane Reichhold who considered my haiku among her 10 favorite haiku of all time! What an honor.
Here’s the Bashō poem with Jane Reichhold’ insightful insightful commentary:
Bashō’s frog
four hundred years
of ripples
At first the idea of picking only 10 of my favorite haiku seemed a rather daunting task. How could I review all the haiku I have read in my life and decide that there were only 10 that were outstanding? Then realized I was already getting a steady stream of excellent haiku day by day through the AHA forum.
The puns and write-offs based on Basho's most famous haiku are so
numerous I would have said that nothing new could be said with this
method, but here Al Fogel proved me wrong. Perhaps part of my delight in this haiku lies in the fact that I agree with him. Here he is saying one thing about realism-ripples are on a pond after a frog jumps in, but because it refers back to Basho and his famous haiku, he is also saying something about the haiku and authors who have followed him. We, and our work, are just ripples while Basho holds the honor of inventing the idea of the sound of a frog leaping is the sound of water
As haiku spreads around the world, making ripples in more and larger
ponds, its ripples are wider-including us all. But his last word reminds us
that we are ripples and our lives ephemeral. It will be the frogs that will remain.
~~
Now the tanka:
returning home from
a Jackson Pollock
exhibition
I smear paint on my face
and turn into art
~~
Finally, the fictional story that I alluded to earlier. It not only should appeal to Afro-Americans but all individual and groups that experience racial discrimination. It is based on a true incident that took place in the 1950s when racial prejudice was rampant. My story has an unexpected heartwarming ending that coincides with my own belief akin to Dr Martin Luther King’s in a non-violent approach and resolution to racial injustice Titled “ Eloise , Edna And The Chicken Coop”
ELOISE, EDNA & THE CHICKEN COOP
There was once a Black lady named Eloise who inherited from her grandmother a parcel of land in the suburbs of Compton California at a time when there was strong racial prejudice against women of color-especially those Black women who owned property in predominately white neighborhoods.
It happened there lived adjacent to Eloise’s land a white woman named Edna who did not like the fact that this Black woman owned land next to hers.
Eloise would try to be friendly because she believed Jesus when He said “Love Thy Neighbor” and to Eloise that meant even if your neighbor was unfriendly.
But whenever Eloise saw Edna, Edna would turn her back in disdain. In fact, ever since her husband died a decade ago, Edna became mean and unfriendly to everyone in the neighborhood.
But to Eloise, she was so hateful and full of animosity that one night when all the lights in Eloise home were off Edna went to her own backyard where she kept her chicken coop and gathered up all the manure and dumped it on Eloise land and upon her tomatoes and her greens and everything she was growing, in an attempt to destroy it.
And when Eloise realized the next morning that there was all this manure, instead of becoming angry, she decided to rake and mix it in with the soil and use it as fertilizer.
Every night Edna would dump the manure from her chicken coop litter box and Eloise would get up in the morning and turn it over and mix it.
This went on for almost a month until one morning Eloise noticed there was no manure in her yard.
Then one of the neighbors informed Eloise that Edna had fallen ill. But because Edna was so mean and unfriendly , no one came to see her when she was sick.
But when Eloise heard about Edna’s condition she picked the best flowers from her garden, walked to Edna’s house , knocked on her front door and when Edna opened the door, she was in complete shock that this Black Woman who she had been so cruel to, would be the only neighbor to visit
her and bring flowers.
Edna was deeply moved by Eloise kindness.
Then Eloise handed the flowers to Edna who said,
“These are the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen! Where’d you get them?”
Eloise replied,
“You helped me make them, Edna, because when you were dumping in my yard, I decided to plant some roses and use your manure as fertilizer.“
This genuine act of kindness opened the floodgate of Edna’s heart that had been closed for so long.
“When I’m feeling better, I would love to have you over for tea,” Edna told Eloise.
“Thank you, “ Edna replied, assuring her she would come. And then added, “I will pray for your speedy recovery every night.”
And with those words Eloise departed.
It’s amazing what can blossom from manure.
There are some who allow manure to fall on them and do nothing.
But then there are others-like Eloise -who “turn the other cheek” when abused or in this case “turn over the soil” to make something new like those bevy of beautiful red roses that opened a white woman’s
heart.
~~
-All love in isolation from Miami Beach, Florida,
-Al
what beautiful poem
you're intelligent girl
God bless you Dear
I cried to this
WOW Speechless!! this was amazing
Your knowledge has touched our soul. 🌈💜🙏
Your poem has touched our souls and mindset
Another Kenyan Girl making us proud
Franco Odeny she is from Somalia 🇸🇴 bro but it’s still in Africa peace ✌️
@@abdiali3111 Well she is Kenyan born .. That makes her Kenyan.
@franco odeny sure thang mate we all the same that’s all that’s matter and once’s we unite we can rule the world peace ✌️
@@frankfrantix her looks and blood is somali, her accent is British...... what exactly is Kenyan, her birthplace she left ages ago and has never returned to? we have many great Kenyans to claim, this is not one of them
@who Cares Watch your mouth dude, is this kind of loose talk, that individual's like you messed somali up for the rest of other decent upright somalis, you should read youtube community guidelines my friend.....you can have her for God sakes as if we dont have indigenous somalis in kenya.
I truly love this
So beautiful. So wonderful. So fantastic.
I love you Warsan
my beauty is not beauty here
Kel Adorable Lady wit Exelante Boem.
"Are you gonna eat that? i say to my mother pointing to my father"
Brief bio
I’m Al Fogel Born in 1945 and at an early age began writing poems. In 1962 I was introduced to a neighbor who just returned from Avatar Meher Baba’s “ East west” gathering and handed me a book titled “The Everything and the Nothing” that included brief but powerful passages by Meher Baba that touched me deeply and i became a “ Baba Lover” I continued writing poems and in 2010 while on Jane Reichhold’s AHA website workshopping poems I befriended a Chinese man who helped me perfect my Senryu and Haibun.
Subsequently I am now considered one of the nations leading authorities on Tanka , Senryu, and Haibun.
Here are some examples of each of my specialties
senryu
~
dentist chair
the hygienist removes
my Bluetooth
~
Internet argument
all his words in CAPS
hers in EMOTICONS
~
after the divorce
he spends more time
at the dollar store
~
damsel in distress
clarke kent still searching
for a phone booth
~
cauliflower ears
once a contender
now boxing vegetables
~
under
the influence -
moonshine
~
Audubon sale
all variety of seeds. . .
early birds welcome
~
Buddhist fortune cookie
the unfolded paper reads
“ better luck next birth!”
~
sudden downpour. . .
the adults run
for shelter
** as you can see, senryu is usually humorous, but it can also be serious. For example, the following two of mine are horrific and heartbreaking ( dealing with the Holocaust):
~
cattle cars
between the slats
human eyes
~
stutthof -
the stench of burnt hair
from the chimneys
~
Tanka ( I already posted the Jackson Pollock one about painting his face but here’s another Tanka
~
Here is another Tanka:
thrift store purchase
inside the leather jacket
a tarnished half-heart
~
Haibuns
The Mathematics of Retribution
“Karma is i fathomable,”
I inform her
It’s late and our conversation turns heavy
“ Seems simple to me, “my girlfriend responds.
“If I murder you, then it’s reasonable that I will be murdered in this or another life to balance the ledger.”
“ Not necessarily so” I’m quick to rejoin.
“What if you murdered me in this life
because I murdered you in a prior life
karmic debts and dues are now equalized.”
“But what if I get caught and I go to jail for life. Where’s the equal payback in that?”
“As I said, karma is unfathomable.”
We continue discussing reincarnation and then add the possibilities of “group karma” to the mix
Finally, at about midnight, we fall asleep
Stutthof -
the stench of burnt hair
from the chimneys
~~
Mama
There were days when I pretended to be too sick to go to school - - just for mamas loving embrace -her arms the heat of home
Even with the onset of dementia, her cheerfulness was so contagious it was a joy being around her despite the illness.
She made everyone laugh with her spontaneous unpredictable behavior.
nursing home
bumper wheelchair
her favorite pastime
Once a week I would whisk her away from the assisted-living facility and we would spend several hours together -grabbing a meal or frequenting some of her favorite second-hand stores where she loved to shop and donate clothes.
When we drove to her favorite thrift in November, her dementia worsened.
thrift store
the dress mama donated
she wants to buy
On a cold December morn mama passed.
The funeral was simple. There was a light drizzle as the family gathered at the gravesite. One by one, with eyes full of rain, we said our last goodbyes.
autumn twilight -
oh mama tuck me under
hug me one more time
~
‘Round Midnight
It was a huge ballroom on the top floor of a building on Broadway --an important midtown crossroads in the heart of the Great White Way.
My uncle still talks with reverence about how -in his heyday -he would travel by rail to the corner of Lenox and walk inside to the beat of jungle music. Who knew what to expect? One night you might be listening with rapt attention to Theloneous Monk and Dizzy Gillespie the godfathers of bebop in their signature beret caps, or the Nicholas Brothers flashing their wild acrobatic spins and splits, or enchanted by the sweet taste of Brown Sugar -with Bojangles out front. And when the Bird was in flight, even the moon was not high enough.
But in 1940 the ballroom closed its doors to make way for a commercial housing development and another kind of night.
new Harlem
the a-train replaced
by the bullet
~
Atlantic City New Jersey
I had just graduated from high school
I remember stopping for saltwater taffy -as evening journeyed slowly into night. Nearing curfew, we sat on a protruded sandy enclave--holding hands, looking out at the ocean, not saying much. In the distance the lights from an ocean liner flickered as the night kept coming on in...
first “french kiss”
under the boardwalk
“over the moon!”
~~
All love,
Al
wooow! amayzing
Warsan shire ❤️🙏
Smart woman!
Somali girl ♥️
just... WOW
Fabulous
Isn't she the one Beyonce got her lyrics from?
not “lyrics” she recited her poems verbatim with written credits to warsan
Can someone translate the language during "The House"?
tigerlily
Let me try
"Nin soo joog laga waayey, soo jiifsaa laga helaa"
The one who doesn't listen to "calm down" will listen to "come lay down"
Meaning you might ignore the warning of someone telling you will get hurt, but when you do get hurt/harmed, you will have no choice but to lay down. Therefore if calm down doesn't work for you, come lay down will work for you because you lay down when you get hurt.
Hope it makes sense, I tried 😬
bek75 Thank you
I like Islam! The only response possibly someway through. I don't mind Islam. It's peace and nature. The only sorrow no begging theme of the day, today and every other day. This must be frightening for them type of thinkers. Pshhh 'I said no kulahaa' hey whatever impact you might draw, Allah would like to be fair. So what are you fighting exactly? Say....
💖
What Man Wants The Whole World Burn Down From His Bedroom? I Quote: Warsan Shire
Typo: Too Watch
hi I'm the director of women empowerment and we want to honour you at our gala in philly please email me fmi thanks
Been badanaa naagtu.