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Light attracts light. But sometimes your light attracts moths and your warmth attracts parasites. Protect your space and energy
Warsan Shire
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Warsan Shire
Age: 36
Born: 1988
Born: January 1
Poet
Writer
Republic of Kenya
Space
Energy
Shire
Light
Moths
Sometimes
Parasites
Attracts
Negativity
Warmth
Protect
More quotes by Warsan Shire
To my daughter I will say, ‘when the men come, set yourself on fire.’
Warsan Shire
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.
Warsan Shire
I want to love, but my hair smells of war and running and running.
Warsan Shire
I have my mother’s mouth and my father’s eyes on my face they are still together.
Warsan Shire
Your mouth is a lonely place but I keep coming back.
Warsan Shire
I am a lover without a lover. I am lovely and lonely and I belong deeply to myself.
Warsan Shire
We took such care of tomorrow, but died on the way there.
Warsan Shire
My name is indigenous to my country, it is not easy to pronounce, it takes effort to say correctly and I am absolutely in love with the sound of it and its meaning. Also, it's not the kind of name you baby, slip into sweet talk mid sentence, late night phone conversation, whisper into the receiver kind of name, so, of that I am glad.
Warsan Shire
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.
Warsan Shire
You can't make homes out of human beings.
Warsan Shire
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.
Warsan Shire
How far have you walked for men who've never held your feet in their laps?
Warsan Shire
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.
Warsan Shire
I tore up and ate my own passport in an airport hotel once. I'm bloated with language I can’t afford to forget.
Warsan Shire
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.
Warsan Shire
With you, intimacy colors my voice. Even 'hello' sounds like 'come here'.
Warsan Shire
And you tried to change, didn't you? Closed your mouth more. Tried to be softer, prettier, less volatile, less awake... You can't make homes out of human beings. Someone should have already told you that. And if he wants to leave, then let him leave. You are terrifying, and strange, and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.
Warsan Shire
Perhaps, the problem is not the intensity of your love, but the quality of the people you are loving.
Warsan Shire
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
You are terrifying, and strange, and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.
Warsan Shire