Quote

Give your daughters difficult names. Give your daughters names that command the full use of the tongue. My name makes you want to tell me the truth. My name doesn't allow me to trust anyone that cannot pronounce it right.

Warsan Shire

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Warsan Shire
Age: 37
Born: 1988
Born: January 1
Poet
Writer
Republic of Kenya
Giving
Difficult
Allow
Tell
Daughter
Makes
Trust
Doesn
Name
Shire
Cannot
Full
Pronounce
Truth
Names
Daughters
Give
Anyone
Command
Right
Use
Tongue

More quotes by Warsan Shire

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You are terrifying, and strange, and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.
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To my daughter I will say, ‘when the men come, set yourself on fire.’
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Your mouth is a lonely place but I keep coming back.
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I belong deeply to myself.
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Light attracts light. But sometimes your light attracts moths and your warmth attracts parasites. Protect your space and energy
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Make peace with your body, it's not manmade, there are no flaws, there are no mistakes.
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The ego hurts you like this: you become obsessed with the one person who does not love you. blind to the rest who do.
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We took such care of tomorrow, but died on the way there.
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I have my mother’s mouth and my father’s eyes on my face they are still together.
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My favourite people, biggest inspirations and closest friends are all women. Not a coincidence.
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Every mouth you’ve ever kissed was just practice. All the bodies you’ve ever undressed and ploughed in to were preparing you for me. I don’t mind tasting them in the memory of your mouth. Was it a long journey? Did it take you long to find me? You’re here now, welcome home.
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You can't make homes out of human beings.
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I tend to the wound so often, it never heals.
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Mother says there are locked rooms inside all women, kitchen of love, bedroom of grief, bathroom of apathy. Sometimes, the men, they come with keys, and sometimes the men, they come with hammers.
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I think in Somali, I cuss in Somali, when I'm afraid I reach for somali and this language is very rich, very filling. It's an unflinching language the crudest most terrible things sound perfectly normal in Somali.
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Make love like you have no secrets like you've never been left never been hurt like the world don't owe you a single wretched thing.
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How far have you walked for men who've never held your feet in their laps?
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I know a few things to be true. I do not know where I am going, where I have come from is disappearing, I am unwelcome and my beauty is not beauty here. My body is burning with the shame of not belonging, my body is longing.
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Two people who were once very close can without blame or grand betrayal become strangers. Perhaps this is the saddest thing in the world.
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I won't glorify or romanticise heartbreak, for me it was a kind of death and I was forced to keep living.
Warsan Shire