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Poems That Make Grown Women Cry
The internationally bestselling collection of poetry so powerful that it has moved readers to tears. “Anthony and Ben Holden remind us that you don’t have to be an academic or a postgraduate in creative writing to be moved by verse” ( The Wall Street Journal ).
One hundred women—distinguished in literature and film, science and law, theater and human rights—share poems that have stayed with them long after reading. The poems here range from the eighth century to today, from Rumi and Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath, W.H. Auden to Carol Ann Duffy, Pablo Neruda, and Derek Walcott to Imtiaz Dharker and Warsan Shire. Their themes range from love and loss, through mortality and mystery, war and peace, to the beauty and variety of nature. From Yoko Ono to Judi Dench, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Elena Ferrante, Tina Brown, Michelle Williams, and Sarah Waters to Kaui Hart Hemmings and Joan Baez to Nikki Giovanni, this unique collection delivers private insights into the minds of women whose writing, acting, and thinking are admired around the world. Their selections include classics by visionaries, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Pablo Neruda as well as contemporary works by masters, including Seamus Heaney, Adrienne Rich, and Warsan Shire, with introductions to their work as powerful as the poems themselves.
Poems That Make Grown Women Cry is a collection which represents a variety of aesthetic sensibilities and the full spectrum of human emotion. It is also a reminder of how poetry can touch minds and hearts, and how easily it will do so for readers of all stripes if they turn the first page.
One hundred women—distinguished in literature and film, science and law, theater and human rights—share poems that have stayed with them long after reading. The poems here range from the eighth century to today, from Rumi and Shakespeare to Sylvia Plath, W.H. Auden to Carol Ann Duffy, Pablo Neruda, and Derek Walcott to Imtiaz Dharker and Warsan Shire. Their themes range from love and loss, through mortality and mystery, war and peace, to the beauty and variety of nature. From Yoko Ono to Judi Dench, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to Elena Ferrante, Tina Brown, Michelle Williams, and Sarah Waters to Kaui Hart Hemmings and Joan Baez to Nikki Giovanni, this unique collection delivers private insights into the minds of women whose writing, acting, and thinking are admired around the world. Their selections include classics by visionaries, such as Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Pablo Neruda as well as contemporary works by masters, including Seamus Heaney, Adrienne Rich, and Warsan Shire, with introductions to their work as powerful as the poems themselves.
Poems That Make Grown Women Cry is a collection which represents a variety of aesthetic sensibilities and the full spectrum of human emotion. It is also a reminder of how poetry can touch minds and hearts, and how easily it will do so for readers of all stripes if they turn the first page.
352 pages, Paperback
First published April 5, 2016
109 people are currently reading
1409 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Holden
93 books22 followersAnthony Holden is an English writer, broadcaster and critic, particularly known as a biographer of artists.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
March 8, 2019
I enjoyed this collection as much as the one with male contributors. It introduced me to many new poets and their work and I was moved by many of the personal stories associated with each work. This is a great anthology for people like me know don't read much poetry, but when they do, enjoy variety and are looking to discover new writers as well.
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com
April 18, 2025
The title, 'Poems That Make Grown Women Cry,' caught my eye while browsing the shelves at a local library. I read all the words, the foreword, the reasonings behind the selections, the poems themselves, the afterword, the acknowledgments etc. It was truly memorable and moving and I reckon I could read it all over in future and different poems would speak to my heart and soul.
Here is a list of the poems that moved me and in some instances made me cry:
1. Frost at Midnight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - selected by Helen Macdonald (I loved her book H is for Hawk) who writes that this "is a poem that works hard against all our loneliness."
Favourite lines: "The Frost performs its secret ministry," and "Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee"
2. Say not the struggle naught availeth by Arthur Hugh Clough - selected by Margaret Drabble who writes, "As I read it, it is a poem about social hope, about hope for humanity."
My favourite line: "If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;"
3. So, we'll go no more a roving by Lord Byron - selected by Judi Dench and Emily Mortimer. Emily writes that this poem is "sad and accepting and beautifully melancholic but I think it's a little bit hopeful too. You can still sense the twinkle in Byron's eye."
My favourite lines: "Though the heart be still as loving, And the moon be still as bright."
4. Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden - selected by Rosie Boycott who writes, "The penultimate stanza particularly moves me: you are 'my North, my South, my East, my West.' We all want, at least once in our lives, to love someone that much and to be lucky enough to be loved that way in return."
My favourite line: [He was] "My working week and Sunday rest."
5. Timothy Winters by Charles Causley - selected by Joan Bakewell who writes, "I can see Timothy Winters in my mind's eye: he looks a standard ragamuffin but without the twinkle in his eye to attract adult approval." She also writes, "I start to crack up at the line 'And slowly goes on growing up' - the fate of millions of neglected unloved children making their own way against the odds." Enough said - my eyes are leaking.
6. Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward by Anne Sexton - selected by Jackie Kay who writes that this poem "made me think of belonging - 'bone at my bone' - and of the process of un-belonging that must begin the moment the poem ends, the familiarity that will turn into strangeness; the mother who will become a relative stranger."
My favorite lines: "Child, the current of your breath is six days long." And, "I see your eyes lifting their tents." Also, "My arms fit you like a sleeve." Finally, "We unlearn. I am a shore rocking you off."
7. Little Sleep's-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight by Galway Kinnell - selected by Michelle Williams who writes of meeting and making friends with Chris Shinn in a diner and discovering their mutual love of this poem. Chris pondered "the meaning of its last line, 'the wages of dying is love.'" Time passes by and eventually Michelle comes to understand that "the best sleeping bag in the world won't keep you as warm as sharing one."
My favourite lines: "my broken arms heal themselves around you." And, "I would let nothing of you go, ever."
8. Minority by Imtiaz Dharker - selected by Meera Syal who writes "What I also find very beautiful and moving is how she as a poet and an outsider understands the need to own that sense of displacement by taking it and transforming it into a creative act, into something beautiful and universal like this poem."
My favourite lines: "There's always that point where // the language flips // into an unfamiliar taste; // where words tumble over // a cunning tripwire on the tongue; // where the frame slips, // the reception of an image // not quite tuned, ghost-outlined, // that signals, in their midst, // an alien."
9. The Last Part by Deborah Keily selected by Olivia Colman who writes, "I haven't once been able to read it without crying."
My favourite lines: "This is not the role I would have chosen, you know // I could be the supportive friend // Not the falling star." Also: "Happiness glistens in my life like jewels under lights."
10. Road Signs by Caroline Bird selected by Jude Kelly who is Caroline's mother - this poem is about her. Jude writes, "I read Caroline's poem and it told me that I'd done something useful as a mother and as a grown up. It made me cry with relief - and gratitude." I loved this poem as it struck me as refreshingly unusual with much to unpack.
11. The Ballad of True Regret by Sebastian Barker selected by Heather Glen who writes, "In a succession of vivid cameos it simply evokes and celebrates a life intensely loved. This, with naked directness, is the passion of true regret."Gone are the many moments // Like snowflakes into a hand. // Gone are the blissful, intimate scents // Of love in a vanished land."
Here is a list of the poems that moved me and in some instances made me cry:
1. Frost at Midnight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - selected by Helen Macdonald (I loved her book H is for Hawk) who writes that this "is a poem that works hard against all our loneliness."
Favourite lines: "The Frost performs its secret ministry," and "Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee"
2. Say not the struggle naught availeth by Arthur Hugh Clough - selected by Margaret Drabble who writes, "As I read it, it is a poem about social hope, about hope for humanity."
My favourite line: "If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;"
3. So, we'll go no more a roving by Lord Byron - selected by Judi Dench and Emily Mortimer. Emily writes that this poem is "sad and accepting and beautifully melancholic but I think it's a little bit hopeful too. You can still sense the twinkle in Byron's eye."
My favourite lines: "Though the heart be still as loving, And the moon be still as bright."
4. Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden - selected by Rosie Boycott who writes, "The penultimate stanza particularly moves me: you are 'my North, my South, my East, my West.' We all want, at least once in our lives, to love someone that much and to be lucky enough to be loved that way in return."
My favourite line: [He was] "My working week and Sunday rest."
5. Timothy Winters by Charles Causley - selected by Joan Bakewell who writes, "I can see Timothy Winters in my mind's eye: he looks a standard ragamuffin but without the twinkle in his eye to attract adult approval." She also writes, "I start to crack up at the line 'And slowly goes on growing up' - the fate of millions of neglected unloved children making their own way against the odds." Enough said - my eyes are leaking.
6. Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward by Anne Sexton - selected by Jackie Kay who writes that this poem "made me think of belonging - 'bone at my bone' - and of the process of un-belonging that must begin the moment the poem ends, the familiarity that will turn into strangeness; the mother who will become a relative stranger."
My favorite lines: "Child, the current of your breath is six days long." And, "I see your eyes lifting their tents." Also, "My arms fit you like a sleeve." Finally, "We unlearn. I am a shore rocking you off."
7. Little Sleep's-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight by Galway Kinnell - selected by Michelle Williams who writes of meeting and making friends with Chris Shinn in a diner and discovering their mutual love of this poem. Chris pondered "the meaning of its last line, 'the wages of dying is love.'" Time passes by and eventually Michelle comes to understand that "the best sleeping bag in the world won't keep you as warm as sharing one."
My favourite lines: "my broken arms heal themselves around you." And, "I would let nothing of you go, ever."
8. Minority by Imtiaz Dharker - selected by Meera Syal who writes "What I also find very beautiful and moving is how she as a poet and an outsider understands the need to own that sense of displacement by taking it and transforming it into a creative act, into something beautiful and universal like this poem."
My favourite lines: "There's always that point where // the language flips // into an unfamiliar taste; // where words tumble over // a cunning tripwire on the tongue; // where the frame slips, // the reception of an image // not quite tuned, ghost-outlined, // that signals, in their midst, // an alien."
9. The Last Part by Deborah Keily selected by Olivia Colman who writes, "I haven't once been able to read it without crying."
My favourite lines: "This is not the role I would have chosen, you know // I could be the supportive friend // Not the falling star." Also: "Happiness glistens in my life like jewels under lights."
10. Road Signs by Caroline Bird selected by Jude Kelly who is Caroline's mother - this poem is about her. Jude writes, "I read Caroline's poem and it told me that I'd done something useful as a mother and as a grown up. It made me cry with relief - and gratitude." I loved this poem as it struck me as refreshingly unusual with much to unpack.
11. The Ballad of True Regret by Sebastian Barker selected by Heather Glen who writes, "In a succession of vivid cameos it simply evokes and celebrates a life intensely loved. This, with naked directness, is the passion of true regret."Gone are the many moments // Like snowflakes into a hand. // Gone are the blissful, intimate scents // Of love in a vanished land."
May 20, 2021
Not a single poem made me cry, but no surprise there.
An unexpectedly diverse and interesting collection of poems from women of some celebrity (most of whom I'd never heard of) with short introductions about what made the poems so meaningful to them. I like the idea. If I liked poetry, I'd probably say I liked the book. I'll probably even pick up Poems That Make Grown Men Cry: 100 Men on the Words That Move Them. But it didn't move me. It barely kept me interested. And I probably will forget about it very fast.
An unexpectedly diverse and interesting collection of poems from women of some celebrity (most of whom I'd never heard of) with short introductions about what made the poems so meaningful to them. I like the idea. If I liked poetry, I'd probably say I liked the book. I'll probably even pick up Poems That Make Grown Men Cry: 100 Men on the Words That Move Them. But it didn't move me. It barely kept me interested. And I probably will forget about it very fast.
June 8, 2025
I have spent the past several weeks with this beautiful collection, reading a few poems a day aloud (which I highly recommend). And, while most did not make me cry, a few did and all of them made me think or settled my heart or calmed my mind. I was struck by their beauty and by the very brief reflections from the women from all over the world who submitted poems for this collection. I discovered a whole bunch of new writers and am slowly, but surely, developing an appreciation for poetry in my reading life.
July 6, 2016
This is a different take on the classic poetry anthology. For introducing new poetry, I wouldn't give it high marks. And since I knew so few of the women contributing the poems that moved them, that part didn't add much enjoyment for me. However, the poems are beautiful, and sometimes new (to me, anyway). The one I found most moving was Unknown Girl in the Maternity Ward, by Anne Sexton.
January 23, 2020
Dieses Buch habe ich in Prag gekauft, in einer total großartigen Buchhandlung neben dem Kafka-Museum. Zwei Stockwerke und voll mit englischsprachigen Büchern, gebraucht und neu, Klassiker und Trivialliteratur. Die hatten alles! In diese Buchhandlung habe ich mich verliebt und hoffentlich, hoffentlich kann ich so bald wie nur irgendwie möglich dorthin zurückkehren. Ein Paar hat zur gleichen Zeit dort Hochzeitsfotos gemacht und ganz ehrlich? Wenn das nicht der Traum eines jeden Buchwurms ist, was ist es dann? Also, an mein zukünftiges Ich: Mach das, bitte, bitte, bitte!
Besonders interessant an diesem Buch fand ich die Reaktionen der Menschen, die mich mit diesem Buch sahen. Und die meiner Familie und Freunde waren da noch die langweiligsten. (Sorry, Leute!) Die sind ja auch schon abgehärtet und wissen, dass ich alle paar Tage mit einem neuen Buch dasitze und eigentlich alles lese, was ich irgendwie in die Finger bekomme, egal welcher Titel, welches Cover, welche Textsorte und so weiter. Alles egal, hauptsache lesen. Auf jeden Fall: Die Reaktionen teilten sich ziemlich genau in zwei Kategorien ein. Erstere lasen den Titel und gingen davon aus, dass ich psychisch angeknackst bin und vielleicht Depressionen oder so habe. Im Zug wurde ich gleich mehrfach gefragt, ob ich denn über irgendwas reden wolle und ob es mir eh gut ginge. An alle diese Leute nochmal: Ja, keine Angst, mir geht es gut. Ich leide nicht an Depressionen oder sonstigen psychischen Erkrankungen. Ich weiß es zu schätzen und finde es toll, dass ihr euch um eure Mitmenschen sorgt, also behaltet euch diese Einstellung bitte bei, aber bei mir müsst ihr euch keine Gedanken machen. Ich will nur Gedichte lesen und wissen, ob Aristoteles "karthasis" funktioniert. Aber dazu später mehr. Die zweite Art der Reaktion fand ich enorm cool: Leute sprachen mich auf das Buch an, fragten nach den Gedichten und begannen, mit mir über die Auswahl zu diskutieren. Das fand ich spannend und ich bekam auch so einige Gedichtempfehlungen. Mein Liebling war ein junger Mann in meinem Alter, der sich im Bus neben mich setzte und ganz, ganz unauffällig mitlas. Er fragte mich dann, ob er nicht ein Foto von dem Buch machen könne, damit er es sich bestellen kann. Als er den Titel sah, seufzte er und sagte: "Okay, also das hört sich sehr klischeehaft an!". Als ich ihm dann erklärte, dass es zuerst das Buch "Poems that Make Grown Man Cry" gab, war er begeistert und sagte, er würde sich dann wohl doch eher das bestellen. Der Typ war sehr cool! Ich hoffe, dass ihm das Buch bald geliefert wird.
Okay, dann sprechen wir jetzt doch kurz über den Karthasis-Effekt. Den hat Aristoteles im Zusammenhang mit seiner "Ars Poetica" beschrieben und so die Wirkung von Stücken erklärt. Laut ihm ruft eine gute Tragödie "Jammern und Schrecken" hervor und bewirkt dadurch eine Reinigung davon. Ob die Gefühle selbst gereinigt werden oder der Mensch von diesen Gefühlen befreit wird, kommt aus der Übersetzung nicht ganz klar hervor, aber egal. Ich hab sowieso Prüfungsphase und bin sowieso gestresst, also dachte ich, lege ich es halt darauf an. Wenn es meinen Stress reinigt und ich reineren Stress fühle, ist es doch auch schon was. Nicht? Nun zur wirklich wichtigen Frage: Habe ich den Karthasis-Effekt gespürt? Nein. Nein, nicht wirklich, leider. Allerdings ist Aristoteles Werk ja auch nicht auf Gedichte ausgerichtet, sondern auf Tragödien, die auf Bühnen aufgeführt werden.
Kommen wir zum Abschluss doch noch zur Frage, die sich jetzt sicher alle stellen. Hat mich das Buch und seine Gedichte zum Weinen gebracht. Auch hier: leider nein. Allerdings muss ich zugeben, dass ich wirklich nur die Gedichte gelesen habe und nicht die Begründung der befragten Frauen dazu. Vielleicht hätte ich ja zu Weinen begonnen, wenn ich wirklich das komplette Buch durchgeackert hätte. Aber nur von den Gedichten? Nein. Aber ich muss zugeben, dass ich mehrmals ganz kurz davor war. Also hat das Buch zumindest teilweise sein Ziel erreicht, schätze ich.
Mein Lieblingsgedicht des ganzen Buchs war übrigens "A Boat, Beneath a Sunny Sky" von Lewis Carrol.
Besonders interessant an diesem Buch fand ich die Reaktionen der Menschen, die mich mit diesem Buch sahen. Und die meiner Familie und Freunde waren da noch die langweiligsten. (Sorry, Leute!) Die sind ja auch schon abgehärtet und wissen, dass ich alle paar Tage mit einem neuen Buch dasitze und eigentlich alles lese, was ich irgendwie in die Finger bekomme, egal welcher Titel, welches Cover, welche Textsorte und so weiter. Alles egal, hauptsache lesen. Auf jeden Fall: Die Reaktionen teilten sich ziemlich genau in zwei Kategorien ein. Erstere lasen den Titel und gingen davon aus, dass ich psychisch angeknackst bin und vielleicht Depressionen oder so habe. Im Zug wurde ich gleich mehrfach gefragt, ob ich denn über irgendwas reden wolle und ob es mir eh gut ginge. An alle diese Leute nochmal: Ja, keine Angst, mir geht es gut. Ich leide nicht an Depressionen oder sonstigen psychischen Erkrankungen. Ich weiß es zu schätzen und finde es toll, dass ihr euch um eure Mitmenschen sorgt, also behaltet euch diese Einstellung bitte bei, aber bei mir müsst ihr euch keine Gedanken machen. Ich will nur Gedichte lesen und wissen, ob Aristoteles "karthasis" funktioniert. Aber dazu später mehr. Die zweite Art der Reaktion fand ich enorm cool: Leute sprachen mich auf das Buch an, fragten nach den Gedichten und begannen, mit mir über die Auswahl zu diskutieren. Das fand ich spannend und ich bekam auch so einige Gedichtempfehlungen. Mein Liebling war ein junger Mann in meinem Alter, der sich im Bus neben mich setzte und ganz, ganz unauffällig mitlas. Er fragte mich dann, ob er nicht ein Foto von dem Buch machen könne, damit er es sich bestellen kann. Als er den Titel sah, seufzte er und sagte: "Okay, also das hört sich sehr klischeehaft an!". Als ich ihm dann erklärte, dass es zuerst das Buch "Poems that Make Grown Man Cry" gab, war er begeistert und sagte, er würde sich dann wohl doch eher das bestellen. Der Typ war sehr cool! Ich hoffe, dass ihm das Buch bald geliefert wird.
Okay, dann sprechen wir jetzt doch kurz über den Karthasis-Effekt. Den hat Aristoteles im Zusammenhang mit seiner "Ars Poetica" beschrieben und so die Wirkung von Stücken erklärt. Laut ihm ruft eine gute Tragödie "Jammern und Schrecken" hervor und bewirkt dadurch eine Reinigung davon. Ob die Gefühle selbst gereinigt werden oder der Mensch von diesen Gefühlen befreit wird, kommt aus der Übersetzung nicht ganz klar hervor, aber egal. Ich hab sowieso Prüfungsphase und bin sowieso gestresst, also dachte ich, lege ich es halt darauf an. Wenn es meinen Stress reinigt und ich reineren Stress fühle, ist es doch auch schon was. Nicht? Nun zur wirklich wichtigen Frage: Habe ich den Karthasis-Effekt gespürt? Nein. Nein, nicht wirklich, leider. Allerdings ist Aristoteles Werk ja auch nicht auf Gedichte ausgerichtet, sondern auf Tragödien, die auf Bühnen aufgeführt werden.
Kommen wir zum Abschluss doch noch zur Frage, die sich jetzt sicher alle stellen. Hat mich das Buch und seine Gedichte zum Weinen gebracht. Auch hier: leider nein. Allerdings muss ich zugeben, dass ich wirklich nur die Gedichte gelesen habe und nicht die Begründung der befragten Frauen dazu. Vielleicht hätte ich ja zu Weinen begonnen, wenn ich wirklich das komplette Buch durchgeackert hätte. Aber nur von den Gedichten? Nein. Aber ich muss zugeben, dass ich mehrmals ganz kurz davor war. Also hat das Buch zumindest teilweise sein Ziel erreicht, schätze ich.
Mein Lieblingsgedicht des ganzen Buchs war übrigens "A Boat, Beneath a Sunny Sky" von Lewis Carrol.
January 29, 2020
3.5*
I didn't cry save for the few poems I've quoted on here. Those touched me in ways I guess only poetry can. I still have little to no understanding of poetry, but when the words are pretty and the move me well then I'm a fan.
I didn't cry save for the few poems I've quoted on here. Those touched me in ways I guess only poetry can. I still have little to no understanding of poetry, but when the words are pretty and the move me well then I'm a fan.
August 11, 2016
Like its predecessor, Poems That Make Grown-Men Cry, this volume asks 100 prominent women (mostly Brits, many unfamiliar) to name a poem that strikes an emotional chord. The commentary they provide on their choices was the most interesting part for me. Nevertheless, since poetry is intensely personal, most of the poems themselves (lots of formal, fussy, or older stuff) didn't do it for me. Had I been asked for my choice(s), I'd have offered Mary Oliver's "Heavy", Tony Hoagland's "The Word", and Joyce Sutphen's "From Out of the Cave". Thanks for asking.
August 1, 2020
I wasn't expecting to cry, but I did expect to find some moving pieces here. Not for me, sadly. First two thirds need the dust off -- nothing from the last 20 years until the very last third of the book. A lot of poems about war and death and oh, the love of men! Can't relate. Also, could we as a society please stop jerking off to literature about war, nazis and the Holocaust, please and thank you? There were a few good poems (Neruda, Plath...) but other than that I skimmed a lot. Bleh.
May 22, 2021
Poems are usually quite difficult for me. I have always preferred whole books to short poems. This book however exposed me to quite a range of poetry, and I learned to like poetry better. It did take me over four years to get through the book, as I felt that I couldn't absorb more than a poem or two at a time.
I'll share my favorite poem in the collection with you. I'll warn you that it is extremely powerful, but well worth the read if you can do it.
Home by Warshan Shire
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
your neighbors running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won't let you stay.
no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it's not something you thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn't be going back.
you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspapers unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied
no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough
the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess up ours
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off
or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is in the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying -
leave,
run away from me now
i don't know what I've become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here.
I'll share my favorite poem in the collection with you. I'll warn you that it is extremely powerful, but well worth the read if you can do it.
Home by Warshan Shire
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
your neighbors running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won't let you stay.
no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it's not something you thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn't be going back.
you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspapers unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied
no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough
the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess up ours
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off
or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is in the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying -
leave,
run away from me now
i don't know what I've become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here.
August 1, 2020
A nicely curated anthology of poems that made for a pleasant read in the park. However, I wish there had been more range and variety in the backgrounds of women who had selected the poems; it seemed most of them were strictly rooted in the entertainment industry and the vast majority of poems and voices were Eurocentric.
May 8, 2016
In addition to expecting that the poems would actually be by women, I assumed a lot more would be modern. This felt so stuffy, which I suppose is my problem. Overall, so very few of these poems resonated with me at all.
April 26, 2016
very good to dip in and out of - the highlights for me are Revenge by Taha Muhammad Ali and for women who are difficult to love by Warsan Shire - both profound and deeply humane.
January 17, 2022
"you can't make homes of human beings
someone should have already told you that"
"you are terrifying
strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love"
- warsan shire, 'for women who are difficult to love' (2009)
this anthology was brilliant. i binge read it maybe too quickly to breathe it all in, but there's plenty of opportunity to read through it again.
i read this to have an insight into feminist poetry for my dissertation, and i think this was the perfect read not only for that, but also just to decide what sort of poetry directly resonates with you.
i'd never heard of warsan shire or her poetry, but taiye selasi's entry was the one which resonated with me most. she writes "i wept for my strangeness. i wept for my beauty. i wept for the beauty of truth plainly told. poetry alone can do this: touch, with the fewest of phrases, our raw beating hearts".
i think that's so fucking beautiful and real. there were so many other entries in the book that were beautifully written, and then the poems that directly effected them. i think that's why in the last few years i've become so deeply connected to poetry. it feels a lot more emotional and personal than prose. i need to get into reading more poetry anthologies
these poems didn't make me cry, but they made my chest ache.
someone should have already told you that"
"you are terrifying
strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love"
- warsan shire, 'for women who are difficult to love' (2009)
this anthology was brilliant. i binge read it maybe too quickly to breathe it all in, but there's plenty of opportunity to read through it again.
i read this to have an insight into feminist poetry for my dissertation, and i think this was the perfect read not only for that, but also just to decide what sort of poetry directly resonates with you.
i'd never heard of warsan shire or her poetry, but taiye selasi's entry was the one which resonated with me most. she writes "i wept for my strangeness. i wept for my beauty. i wept for the beauty of truth plainly told. poetry alone can do this: touch, with the fewest of phrases, our raw beating hearts".
i think that's so fucking beautiful and real. there were so many other entries in the book that were beautifully written, and then the poems that directly effected them. i think that's why in the last few years i've become so deeply connected to poetry. it feels a lot more emotional and personal than prose. i need to get into reading more poetry anthologies
these poems didn't make me cry, but they made my chest ache.
November 23, 2018
This book has been an enjoyable part of my year. I forced myself to take my time, reading one poem a day at most and sitting with it.
Did I like every poem? No, and that isn’t the point. I experienced poetry and poets that I wouldn’t have found on my own, and the short essays from accomplished women recommending each poem provided another layer of meaning, another frame through which to experience them.
I reencountered some favorite poets (William Shakespeare, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop) but better yet I was moved by new-to-me poets (Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali, Susanna Tomalin, Douglas Dunn, Imtiaz Dharker, Katha Pollitt, Warsan Shire). I look forward to reading their poetry in more depth and am grateful for the experience I had with their words this year.
Did I like every poem? No, and that isn’t the point. I experienced poetry and poets that I wouldn’t have found on my own, and the short essays from accomplished women recommending each poem provided another layer of meaning, another frame through which to experience them.
I reencountered some favorite poets (William Shakespeare, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop) but better yet I was moved by new-to-me poets (Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali, Susanna Tomalin, Douglas Dunn, Imtiaz Dharker, Katha Pollitt, Warsan Shire). I look forward to reading their poetry in more depth and am grateful for the experience I had with their words this year.
June 27, 2025
This got better. I was disappointed and bored at the beginning by all the old white men - Tennyson, Wordsworth etc but enjoyed the second half much more with new-to-me writers. Would have been nice if the women in question had chosen a few more female poets.
January 1, 2019
A lovely set of poems.
July 8, 2020
This one in my opinion is not as good as its’ companion book Poetry that makes Men Cry. I only found three whole poems in this one that I loved. I still like that it is an anthology of poetry.
December 8, 2023
did this take me almost three years to finish?
…yes. it was worth it though.
…yes. it was worth it though.
February 8, 2025
Of course there are good poems in this compilation album – Anna Akhmatova, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Anselm Hollo, Anne Sexton, Wilfred Owen, Imtiaz Dharker, Taha Muhammad Ali, Warsan Shire, Henri Cole, Neruda, Byron, Keats, Shelley, the usual suspects – but you can find those in their own books. This book is a basic gimmick conceived by a couple of old Oxford boys – they don’t (manage to) hide this in their introductions – to stir controversy and therefore make money, and in which their friends in high places (I don’t think many of the contributors could object to that description) tell us once again that Shakespeare and Lord Tennyson and Ezra Pound are the best poets that ever lived (and if we think ‘but they are!’ then centuries of books like this have done their work and done it well). There are a couple of interesting contributions, and an afterword from Nicky Parker of Amnesty International, who manages to see the best in this book and in its ill thought out predecessor. Anyway, I didn’t come close to crying and many of the contributors confess they didn’t either, further highlighting the failure of this book (and arguably of the established poetry canon in general). If only one thing justifies this book’s existence it’s the surprisingly beautiful poem by Susanna Tomalin (daughter of contributor Claire Tomalin) written shortly before her suicide. That one is tragically promising and genuinely sad.
March 10, 2021
The title makes it seem this collection will be schmaltzy, and it is not. It’s a beautiful collection of poems contributed by strong and talented women. Basically, they asked a bunch of notably talented and successful women to share a poem that makes them cry, and they included an essay for each poem as to why. It’s a wonderful collection, whether you’re new to poetry or well versed, and I found some new favorites. The essays included were lovely and deepened the experience.
August 14, 2016
Some of the poems and stories attached were awesome. Some were downright strange. Still worth the read!
May 26, 2016
Funny how a book titled Poems That Make Grown Women Cry is edited by two men.
Too, one poem made me cry so...
Too, one poem made me cry so...
March 19, 2023
Lacks a diversity in poets tbh
May 15, 2021
I'm quite partial, in general, to a bit of lachrymose poetry, so it's no surprise that I love both the idea and the execution of this anthology. The feature of having each poem selected and introduced by a female public figure (drawn from various spheres) adds an interesting and engaging dimension to the reading experience; it certainly shaped the way in which I approached even those poems I already knew well.
The poem I would have chosen as my own contribution to this collection is Edward Thomas's incomparable "Adlestrop", which I never can read without experiencing a tightening of the heart and a welling of the eyes, and I was extremely pleased to see it included here (chosen by both Lynn Barber and Kate Atkinson). I also enjoyed revisiting several old favourites (particularly "Little Gidding, "Ulysses", Ode to a Nightingale", "Strange Meeting, "Anthem for Doomed Youth", and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"), and encountering several wonderful poems for the first time (including "So, we'll go no more a roving", "When You are Old", "When Death Comes", and "for women who are difficult to love", the last of which I think should be required reading for every woman).
I'm eager to pick up the companion volume, ""Poems that Make Grown Men Cry" soon, not least because I'm intrigued to make a thematic comparison of the selections in each of the two anthologies.
The poem I would have chosen as my own contribution to this collection is Edward Thomas's incomparable "Adlestrop", which I never can read without experiencing a tightening of the heart and a welling of the eyes, and I was extremely pleased to see it included here (chosen by both Lynn Barber and Kate Atkinson). I also enjoyed revisiting several old favourites (particularly "Little Gidding, "Ulysses", Ode to a Nightingale", "Strange Meeting, "Anthem for Doomed Youth", and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"), and encountering several wonderful poems for the first time (including "So, we'll go no more a roving", "When You are Old", "When Death Comes", and "for women who are difficult to love", the last of which I think should be required reading for every woman).
I'm eager to pick up the companion volume, ""Poems that Make Grown Men Cry" soon, not least because I'm intrigued to make a thematic comparison of the selections in each of the two anthologies.
May 8, 2017
This is a collection of poems, chosen and introduced by women of varying celebrity, based on their (the poems) ability to move those women on an emotional level. I enjoyed the book for several reasons. The poems themselves, of course, first off. Many were old friends (some Shakespeare, ‘On My First Son’ by Ben Johnson, Byron’s ‘So, we’ll go no more a roving,’ Dickenson’s ‘I took my Power in my Hands’ among them); some were new to me and didn’t really affect me, but other new ones did indeed bring me to tears (‘Timothy Winters’ by Charles Causley and ‘Clearances’ by Seamus Heaney, to name a couple). So the poetry alone is worth the read, and I’ve added several poets to my list of ones to look up and read more, and have moved others already on the list closer to the top. But in addition to the poetry, many of the introductions, written by the women who chose the poems, were lovely as well, and have led to another list, particularly of the writers among the group, of women I want to know more about and read more of. So yes, I definitely recommend the collection, to those who may be looking for a way to dip into reading poetry, and also to those old hats at the poetry-reading biz, as it’s always worth looking at things (poems included) through someone else’s thoughts.
January 7, 2019
Having read the male counterpart to this book, in the interests of gender equality and curiosity, I had to read the female version too. Poetry is very personal and so expecting to be moved to tears by someone else's choice is an unreal expectation, particulalry for those poems that have come at moments of grief in someone's life. What makes this book and its companion volume interesting are the introductions to the poems written by the contributors. Claire Tomalin, who writes brilliant biographies (Austen, Dickens, Pepys etc), shares a devastating and moving poem written by her talented daughter that must have broken her mother's heart. The 100 women who share the poems that have touched their lives, range widely across nationalities, ages and backgrounds and I knew very few of the the poems they shared. To read and enjoy poetry, and to expand one's appreciation beyone the familiar classics to the present day, takes concentration and time. But I am convinced that the rewards out pay the effort, so here's a resolution to self - read a poem a day.
June 12, 2024
I adore this series and its founding concept.
From the collection, I was particular moved by the following poems.
Bani Adam - Sa’adi
I loves the boy… - Williams Wordsworth
So we’ll go no more a roving - Lord Byron
Extract from the Masque of Anarchy - Percy Bysshe Shelley
I Am - John Clare
Adlestrop - Edward Thomas
The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock - Edward Thomas
Fallen - Alice Corbin
Suicide in the trenches - Siegfried Sassoon
Does it matter? - Siegfried Sassoon
Funeral Blues - Auden
Dedication (from Requiem) - Anna Akhmatova
No.4 Little Gidding - T S Eliot
Timothy Winters - Charles Causley
Sestina - Ruth Scurr
Unknown girl in the maternity ward - Anne Sexton
Dublinesque - Phillip Larkin
Little Sleep’s-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight - Galway Kinnell
One Art - Elizabeth Bishop
The Kaleidoscope - Douglas Dunn
Perfection Wasted - John Updike
Late Fragment - Raymond Carver
The Last Part - Deborah Keily
Revenge - Taha Muhammad Ali
Home - Warsan Shire
The Ballad of True Regret - Sebastian Barker
The Skin that Carry My Worth - Earl Mills
Vigil - Jeremy Robson
From the collection, I was particular moved by the following poems.
Bani Adam - Sa’adi
I loves the boy… - Williams Wordsworth
So we’ll go no more a roving - Lord Byron
Extract from the Masque of Anarchy - Percy Bysshe Shelley
I Am - John Clare
Adlestrop - Edward Thomas
The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock - Edward Thomas
Fallen - Alice Corbin
Suicide in the trenches - Siegfried Sassoon
Does it matter? - Siegfried Sassoon
Funeral Blues - Auden
Dedication (from Requiem) - Anna Akhmatova
No.4 Little Gidding - T S Eliot
Timothy Winters - Charles Causley
Sestina - Ruth Scurr
Unknown girl in the maternity ward - Anne Sexton
Dublinesque - Phillip Larkin
Little Sleep’s-Head Sprouting Hair in the Moonlight - Galway Kinnell
One Art - Elizabeth Bishop
The Kaleidoscope - Douglas Dunn
Perfection Wasted - John Updike
Late Fragment - Raymond Carver
The Last Part - Deborah Keily
Revenge - Taha Muhammad Ali
Home - Warsan Shire
The Ballad of True Regret - Sebastian Barker
The Skin that Carry My Worth - Earl Mills
Vigil - Jeremy Robson
May 18, 2017
I thought the concept was interesting when viewing the title, but it was really amazing.
When I viewed the list of poems, I was surprised at some of the selections, noted a fair number that I was totally unfamiliar with (and I read a lot of poetry) and was shocked to find Mary Oliver listed only once. However, I treasure having been shown some of these poems!
"If you Forget Me{" by Pablo Neruda, "The Kaleidoscope" by Douglas Dunn that did make me cry, "Home" by Warsan Shire and "Walls" by Oswald Mbuviseni Mtshali which brought me right out of my chair -- especially considering all the talk about walls in our political arena at this time.
I will be hanging onto this book and re-reading many of the poems, hunting down more poetry by poets with whom I was unfamiliar with but whose work touched me.
I did particularly like the opening by each of the women telling why that particular poem touched them.
When I viewed the list of poems, I was surprised at some of the selections, noted a fair number that I was totally unfamiliar with (and I read a lot of poetry) and was shocked to find Mary Oliver listed only once. However, I treasure having been shown some of these poems!
"If you Forget Me{" by Pablo Neruda, "The Kaleidoscope" by Douglas Dunn that did make me cry, "Home" by Warsan Shire and "Walls" by Oswald Mbuviseni Mtshali which brought me right out of my chair -- especially considering all the talk about walls in our political arena at this time.
I will be hanging onto this book and re-reading many of the poems, hunting down more poetry by poets with whom I was unfamiliar with but whose work touched me.
I did particularly like the opening by each of the women telling why that particular poem touched them.
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