Quote

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

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Warsan Shire
Age: 36
Born: 1988
Born: January 1
Poet
Writer
Republic of Kenya
Long
Memories
Kissed
Mind
Practice
Preparing
Home
Bodies
Body
Welcome
Find
Mouth
Ever
Mouths
Ploughed
Take
Memory
Undressed
Every
Journey
Tasting

More quotes by Warsan Shire

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I want to love, but my hair smells of war and running and running.
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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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Light attracts light. But sometimes your light attracts moths and your warmth attracts parasites. Protect your space and energy
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My alone feels so good, I'll only have you if you're sweeter than my solitude.
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You can't make homes out of human beings.
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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.
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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.
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I belong deeply to myself.
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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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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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At the end of the day, it isn’t where I came from. Maybe home is somewhere I’m going and never have been before.
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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’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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Make peace with your body, it's not manmade, there are no flaws, there are no mistakes.
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I tore up and ate my own passport in an airport hotel once. I'm bloated with language I can’t afford to forget.
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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.
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There is no intimacy like that between two women who have chosen to be sisters.
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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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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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