During these uncertain times we’re all finding ourselves in forced solitude. Taking time to escape and read a book to free your mind while letting your imagination wander to a place that’s safe is something that we are all yearning for right now.
Author Sophia Thakur’s poems give you that time and space to recalibrate, to find yourself again. When we’re overextended, stressed, and feel like we’re at the end of our ropes, we need to take a moment to return to ourselves. In her powerful debut collection of poetry, Thakur writes the following:
Be with yourself for a moment.
Be yourself for a moment.
Airplane mode everything but yourself for a moment.
Sit back, relax, grab yourself a hot cup of tea, and enjoy some poems from acclaimed performance poet Sophia Thakur. Her latest work, Somebody Give This Heart a Pen offers a stirring collection of coming-of-age poems exploring issues of identity, difference, perseverance, relationships, fear, loss, and joy. From youth to school to family life to falling in love and falling back out again, these poems draw on the author’s experience as a young mixed-race woman trying to make sense of a lonely and complicated world. With the author’s strong narrative voice and emotional empathy, this is poetry that will resonate with all young people, whatever their background and whatever their dreams.
Check out an excerpt of one of Sophia’s poems, and watch her powerful spoken word performance.
Excerpt from “Little Black Girls”
What else absorbs the light whilst still reflecting it
What else besides the water
What else besides the sky
What else besides this skin
That the world tries to demonise.
What else dances like a river
Cracking dams at each hip
Cracking smiles from lips
And letting the sun out
What else besides the morning
What else besides the sky
What else besides my skin
That the world tries to demonise
What else finds grace
To be stitched into the fabric of our DNA
As a response to the the worlds prejudice
As way to survive the hate
What else doesn’t let the evil in
But finds any reason to celebrate
What else besides a survivor
What else besides a Queen
What else besides my skin
Oh melanin,
…What a dream
Copyright © 2020 by Sophia Thakur.
Sophia Thakur has been performing since the age of sixteen and has a wide reach across social media. She has presented two TED Talks and has worked closely with young people, sharing her poems and the creative process. This is her first published collection. She lives in Middlesex, England.
Somebody Give This Heart a Pen is currently available wherever books are sold.
