An invocation of parentified children and the adulescents/ adults they become. The book, Shire said, is “an exploration of how far the tendrils of childhood trauma reach. The long-awaited collection from one of our most exciting contemporary poets, this book is a blessing, an incantatory celebration of resilience and survival. This is polychrome life: full of henna and moonlight and lipstick and turmeric and kohl.

This is fragrant life: full of blood and perfume and shisha smoke and jasmine and incense. This is noisy life: full of music and weeping and surahs and sirens and birds. In Shire’s hands, lives spring into fullness. Drawing from her own life, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women, and teenage girls. She was awarded the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize and served as the first Young Poet Laureate of London.With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a young girl, who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own stumbling way towards womanhood. She has written two chapbooks, Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth and Her Blue Body. Warsan Shire is a Somali-British writer and poet born in Nairobi and raised in London.

The CBC Books spring reading list: 50 great books to read this season.

In Shire's hands, lives spring into fullness. With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a young girl, who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own stumbling way towards womanhood. Mama, I made it/ out of your home/ alive, raised by the/ voices in my head.

Warsan shire poems book