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

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Sad people have the gift of time, while the world dizzies everyone else they remain stagnant, their bodies refusing to follow pace with the universe. With these kind of people everything aches for too long, everything moves without rush, wounds are always wet.
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Later that night, I held an atlas on my lap, ran my fingers across the whole world, and whispered, ‘where does it hurt?’ It answered, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.
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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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I belong deeply to myself.
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You can't make homes out of human beings.
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I’m overwhelmed. My biggest downfall is my brightest blessing, I feel too much, all the time. Ya Allah, if it’ll keep my heart soft, break my heart every day.
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Don't assume, ask. Be kind. Tell the truth. Don't say anything you can't stand behind fully. Have integrity. Tell people how you feel.
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I am a lover without a lover. I am lovely and lonely and I belong deeply to myself.
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We took such care of tomorrow, but died on the way there.
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Perhaps, the problem is not the intensity of your love, but the quality of the people you are loving.
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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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It's not my responsibility to be beautiful. I'm not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me.
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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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Apathy is the same as war, it all kills you, she says. Slow like cancer in the breast or fast like a machete in the neck.
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There is no intimacy like that between two women who have chosen to be sisters.
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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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I want to love, but my hair smells of war and running and running.
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Document the moments you feel most in love with yourself - what you're wearing, who you're around, what you're doing. Recreate and repeat.
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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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