"No one would leave home until home is a voice in your saying--leave, run, now. I don't know what I've become."

I've loved Warsan Shire's poetry for years, so I was thrilled to receive an advanced copy of this collection. The poems are evocative, vulnerable, and relentless. There's a rawness in her words that sounds like an invitation and a battle cry all at once.

"I can write the poem and make it disappear."

“I want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark. Home is the barrel of a gun. No one would leave home unless home chased you to the shore. No one would leave home until home is a voice in your ear saying — leave, run, now. I don’t know what I’ve become.”

“I’ll rewrite this whole life and this time there’ll be so much love, you won’t be able to see beyond it.”

Her poetry forces us to reckon with the delicate nature of the body, particularly of young girls’ bodies, and the too often trauma & pain they endure. Shire writes about the resiliency of womanhood entangled with faith, cultural expectations and abuse. I gasped at the first poem, it’s first lines about girlhood, it’s inherit dissatisfaction to the world. She peels at the edges of Daughter as identity, never admitting to a full escape, but questioning the possibility of vulnerability and honesty between women; of the strength and healing that comes from the stories shared with one another. A series of poems about home (or more distantly the house) beautifully craft the metaphor of the body as a series of locked doors—who is given access can be a matter of force or healing.

This collection is magnificent - I found myself holding my breath while reading some of the poems - so powerful and beautiful and masterful. I don’t know how Warsan Shire does it. Truly amazing. Buy this one and keep out for others to pick up and experience. I know I am. Heartfelt thanks to Random House for the advanced copy. What a treasure.

In the past I’ve frequently read handfuls of Shire’s brilliant, beautiful, devastating poetry and thought to myself, “That’s me!” Sadly, this collection didn’t resonate with me at all. I poured through her raw works, and couldn’t really identify with a single one this time. Still, I’m glad to have read through them and was invited a sneak peek into her world. I especially respect the poem about the Somalian woman who was murdered and misidentified for years as Caucasian.
Though I may not have adored this collection, I will eagerly await her next book and still see Ms Shire as the most talented poet of our time.

5 stars

I came into this collection loving Warsan Shire, and I am leaving it feeling that sentiment even more powerfully.

As usual, Shire's works reveal a vulnerable, feminine, and at times challenging set of experiences and circumstances. I'll attempt to honor her work by cutting my words short. Go read - or better yet, listen to if you can - hers instead.

I'll be recommending this treasure for a long time to come.

Herein the body is more than its corporeal form. It is a border wall limned with barbed wire, a boat tossed on a treacherous sea between nations, a forest aflame, a line of demarcation, a political statement, a war zone, a site of both refuge and terror, a haunted geography, and a mother’s scream, beautiful and terrible. Herein is a voice forged in fire. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is perhaps 2022’s most anticipated poetry collection and I for one can say it was worth the long wait.

Like a lot of people, my first experience with Warsan Shire and her poetry came vis-à-vis the visual album for Beyoncé’s Lemonade. For those of you who haven’t watched Lemonade, it is composed of eleven chapters, corresponding with the first eleven songs on the album with names like “Intuition” (for “Pray You Catch Me”) and “Redemption” (for “All Night”). In the interstitial spaces between songs, Beyoncé recites pieces of poetry and prose by Warsan Shire. The British-Somali wunderkind, then relatively-unknown outside of the U.K., was catapulted into the spotlight.

Immediately after listening to Lemonade, I bought Shire’s 2011 chapbook, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, which I’ve read several times now. In 2015, she released a chapbook through flipped eye publishing called Her Blue Body, and if you have a copy then you’d be well-advised to hold on tight to it for dear life because I’ve been scouring the Internet for years in search of a copy. I once saw a used copy online for more than $1,000, and if I’d had the money I’d have bought it no questions asked.

Like all of Shire’s work, this collection explores themes of immigration, Black womanhood, Muslim identity, mental health, and sexual violence. I can’t imagine anyone reading it and leaving it unaffected if not completely transformed. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is not to be missed.

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head: Poems is due to be released by Random House Trade Paperbacks on March 1st, 2022 and is now available to preorder wherever books are sold. Her previous chapbook, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, is available to purchase wherever books are sold.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for access to the ARC! I was so excited when I saw this collection was coming out. I was not let down by this collection! It was full of beautiful and evocative poems that represent Shire’s background. These poems felt deeply personal but still offered readers the ability to latch on and connect to the feelings and emotions presented even if they don’t share a background! Highly recommend this collection and cannot wait to have a physical copy in my hands.