Daddy Writer to Be – Umbilical Cord
Submitted by Hasan Namir
As writers, we are always inspired by the life experiences that we go through; the traumas, the fears, and the excitement of it all. As a follow up poetry book to War/Torn, I have started working on a new collection of poems that focus solely on my experiences as a dad: my love story with Tarn, the surrogacy process, my relationship with the baby and my husband as we continue our journey as one family.
The collection, entitled Umbilical Cord, is somewhat a sequel follow-up to War/Torn. I’m steering away from religion and the struggle of reconciliation with identity. Rather, this poetry book will be focused on a love story that blossomed, triumphing over adversities and impossibilities. With the most selfless gift from our surrogate mom, we are so blessed and lucky that we are going to be dads Inshallah-Waheguru (Inshallah-Waheguru means God-Willing in Islam and Sikhism).
The poems will be written to chronicle the beginning of the surrogacy process, our desire to be dads, our journey through fatherhood and parenthood, the ups and downs, and lots of about Malek.
The first section will be focused on my love story with Tarn. In War/Torn, I had included some poems that were about my love for Tarn, but I felt like there could have been more. When I think of War/Torn, I think of all the struggles that I’ve experienced. When I think of my life with Tarn, I forget about these struggles. I knew that in the new poetry book, that will be my focus the love story of a man and a man and a baby.
The second section will be poems during when our surrogate mom is pregnant, our excitement, our fears, our ups and downs, and the experiences we cherish.
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The third section, I will be writing once I’m on parental leave as I will be taking care of Malek with my husband. I want it to focus on Malek, our journey together as family. I want to evoke all the feels.
As this is my last post as your October writer-in-residence, as a daddy writer to be, I want thank Open Book for this amazing opportunity and I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read my posts.
As a daddy writer to be, I urge every parent to be able to write about their experiences and share it with the world. Your experiences will be unique and will offer a personal glimpse into your parenthood journey. As a daddy writer to be, I pray that God protects our child from any harm. Little do they know how much their daddies are excited to meet them.
This is the story of a man + man + a baby.
The views expressed in the Writer-in-Residence blogs are those held by the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Open Book.
Iraqi-Canadian author Hasan Namir graduated from Simon Fraser University with a BA in English and received the Ying Chen Creative Writing Student Award. He is the author of God in Pink (2015), which won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Fiction and was chosen as one of the Top 100 Books of 2015 by The Globe and Mail. His work has also been featured on Huffington Post, Shaw TV, Airbnb, and in the film God in Pink: A Documentary. He was recently named a writer to watch by CBC books. Hasan lives in Vancouver with his husband. War/Torn (2019, Book*Hug) is his latest poetry book.