I’ve seriously, literally had my breath taken away by the poetry of the Kenyan-born Somali poet and writer. You might know her already from the following piece that made the rounds after Quvenzhane Wallis was at the Oscar’s:

“give your daughters difficult names. give your daughters names that command the full use of tongue. my name makes you want to tell me the truth. my name doesn’t allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right.”

She and her work are on Tumblr and Twitter and she published a collection of poems called “Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth (Mouthmark)” and there’s an album of readings “warsan versus melancholy (the seven stages of being lonely)” on bandcamp. I’ll be reblogging a couple of especially striking poems.