Quote

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

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Warsan Shire
Age: 36
Born: 1988
Born: January 1
Poet
Writer
Republic of Kenya
Things
Perfectly
Think
Reach
Thinking
Normal
Afraid
Crudest
Terrible
Somali
Rich
Cuss
Sound
Unflinching
Language
Filling

More quotes by Warsan Shire

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When I love, I love: wholly, thoroughly, completely, drowning in everything. Every glance can be a conversation, eyes just playing and saying what needs to be said. Silence is loud, and the air becomes heavy. I want you. I want all of you.
Warsan Shire
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I want to love, but my hair smells of war and running and running.
Warsan Shire
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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.
Warsan Shire
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Your mouth is a lonely place but I keep coming back.
Warsan Shire
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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.
Warsan Shire
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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.
Warsan Shire
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Make peace with your body, it's not manmade, there are no flaws, there are no mistakes.
Warsan Shire
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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.
Warsan Shire
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My alone feels so good, I'll only have you if you're sweeter than my solitude.
Warsan Shire
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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.
Warsan Shire
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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.
Warsan Shire
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You are terrifying, and strange, and beautiful. Something not everyone knows how to love.
Warsan Shire
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We took such care of tomorrow, but died on the way there.
Warsan Shire
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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
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To my daughter I will say, ‘when the men come, set yourself on fire.’
Warsan Shire
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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.
Warsan Shire
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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.
Warsan Shire
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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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I belong deeply to myself.
Warsan Shire
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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.
Warsan Shire