Warsan Shire is a Kenyan-born Somali poet whose work has risen in prominence since some of her verse was featured in the singer Beyoncé's film Lemonade, released in 2016. Her debut collection—entitled teaching my mother how to give birth—was well received, and in 2018 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, cementing her position as a young writer of real talent.
Shire was inspired to write "Home" after visiting a shelter for Somali refugees in London. Her poem grapples with the harsh realities of life as a refugee, someone who has to abandon his or her home and way of life in order to survive, often because of conflict. Shire does not shy away from documenting the true nature of being a refugee; she writes that "no one puts their children in a boat / unless the water is safer than the land,", and refers to the painful and dehumanizing effect of leaving one's homeland and finding oneself in a foreign, unfriendly place.
A sense of dislocation and a lack of belonging dominate the poem, which is political to its core. Inspired by the tragic individual stories which formed part of the European refugee crisis, it is an urgent reminder of the reasons why refugees do what they feel they have to do to survive and protect their families.
