Because sometimes, teaching your mother how to give birth is really about teaching yourself how to survive. Have you read Warsan Shire’s work? What poem hit you hardest? Let me know in the comments below.
In twelve lines, Shire rewrites origin. The daughter becomes the mother’s midwife for memory. A poem about un-doing trauma: walking out of the sea, un-eating, un-loving. It’s the closest poetry comes to a rewind button on grief. 3. “The House” “My mother’s hands are not beautiful / but they know how to make / a home out of a war.” teaching my mother how to give birth pdf
Domesticity and violence coexist. The house is a body; the body is a country. Over a decade later, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth feels more urgent than ever. Because sometimes, teaching your mother how to give
We are still seeing refugee crises, still witnessing the silencing of women’s pain, still inheriting trauma from generations that couldn’t speak it. Shire’s poetry doesn’t offer solutions. It offers witness. And sometimes, that’s more powerful. Let me know in the comments below