Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire (Chatto, £12.99)
Shire’s first full-length collection builds on her much admired pamphlets Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth and Her Blue Body. Intergenerational trauma arising from the legacy of war, colonialism and the ongoing refugee crisis are addressed with a painful and urgent clarity. In her notable poem “Home”, Shire writes, “No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark. You only / run for the border when you see the whole city running as well. / The boy you went to school with, who kissed you dizzy behind the / old tin factory, is holding a gun bigger than his body.” The need to reclaim ownership over one’s body is another key theme, especially in the wake of sexual trauma. In “Backwards”, a specular poem in which the latter half mirrors the first, Shire invokes the creative powers of the writer to transform one’s past: “Give them stumps for hands if even once they touched us without consent, / I can write the poem and make it disappear.” Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed.
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