![]() ![]() What can poetry convey that the media often can’t or won’t? “The parts of a person that their loved ones cherish, the things that make us human, the tender moments, the complexities, the humanity, the details that flesh out the human being so you can feel empathy, so you can care,” she says. It is about the experiences of being displaced and dispossessed-of family and country, of innocence and identity. It is personal and charged with the political. “Today, poetry is the language of longing,” she intones.īless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head parses a range of poignant emotions as well as the issues of our times. For her, the meaning of a poem-its space, its purpose, its power-often changes, depending on how she feels on any given day. ![]() Fans who have been following her work through the years will recognise poems such as ‘Home’, which sparked conversations about Syrian refugees circa 2015, and ‘Backwards’, the formally inventive poem about rewriting and rescuing one’s past. “He has worked closely with me on the sequencing and the structuring of the chapters, even the titles.” With his help, along with that of Caitlin Mckenna, the manuscript was cut away from a larger body of work Shire had worked on for the last decade. How did she curate the collection, which is divided into four titled sections? What was the process of putting together these poems from cover to cover? “This came from the amazing work of editor and poet Jacob Sam-La Rose,” Shire reveals. “Exploring childhood and familial trauma from the perspective of a mother reveals layers, new questions.” Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head is a coming-of-age story of survival-of finding ways to thrive, not just live-in the context of a childhood and a country lost to the wars that surround us and the wars that sit within us. In fact, “becoming a mother has changed me the most, as a person, as a writer,” says the mum of two. “I write to music and film sometimes in response to art or sculpture, documentary, overhead phrases, articles, photography,” she says, as is evident from her poems, which speak to her heritage and home as much as to news headlines. ![]() Looking back at those nascent years, how has the 33-year-old grown as a poet? “My process hasn’t changed,” she declares. “Being recognised and awarded by a panel of brilliant writers I admire really nurtured and empowered me as a young writer-and the role of YPL was as an education and an honour,” she shares. They inspired her to take herself seriously and to be more intentional about her craft. Such early experiences-finding fame and readers-shaped and strengthened Shire. ![]()
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