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Inspiration September 22, 2017
"With you, intimacy colours my voice. Even ‘hello’ sounds like 'come here.'"
It’s become common for poet laureates to also be avid tweeters. With the advancement of social media, Twitter has become a tool for all.
Poet Warsan Shire writes about the immigrant experience and tweets out “my dj name is dj eldest immigrant daughter.”
Because of her relatability, her poems have become mantras and mottos for young women. Her poems circle throughout Twitter and videos of her reciting her poems still show up on YouTube feeds.
Parts of Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” visual album derived from one of Shire’s poems.
The 29-year-old was born in Kenya to Somalian parents but grew up in London. With this constant feeling of displacement, Shire has learned to use poetry to illustrate her lack of belonging.
Her first collection of poems, “Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth,” came out in 2011. She then received Brunel University’s inaugural African Poetry Prize in 2013. In 2014, she became the Young Poet Laureate of London. She was also chosen as Queensland, Australia’s poet in residence that same year.
At a young age, Shire built an unforgettable reputation. Her poems are unique and heart-rending.
So, we compiled a list of moving Warsan Shire quotes on men, love and home that will definitely blow you away and clench your heart at the same time.
“You want me to be a tragic backdrop so that you can appear to be illuminated, so that people can say ‘Wow, isn’t he so terribly brave to love a girl who is so obviously sad?’ You think I’ll be the dark sky so you can be the star? I’ll swallow you whole.”
“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 that not everyone knows how to love.”
“I cut him out at the root, he was my favorite tree, rotting, threatening the foundations of my home.”
“I’m a lover without a lover. I’m lovely and lonely. I belong deeply to myself.”
“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.”
“But sometimes your light attracts moths and your warmth attracts parasites. Protect your space and energy.”
“The only darkness we should allow into our lives is the night, for even then, we have the moon.”
“Make peace with your body, it’s not manmade, there are no flaws, there are no mistakes.”
“Give your daughters difficult names. Give your daughters names that command the full use of 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.”
“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.”
“Loving you was like going to war; I never came back the same.”
“I won’t glorify or romanticize heartbreak, for me it was a kind of death and I was forced to keep living.”
“To my daughter I will say, when men come, set yourself on fire.”
“Your daughter’s face is a small riot, her hands are a civil war, a refugee camp behind each ear, a body littered with ugly things. But God, doesn’t she wear the world well.:
“Perhaps the problem is not the intensity of your love but the quality of the people you are loving.”
“You are terrifying and strange and beautiful, someone not everyone knows how to love.”
“With you, intimacy colours my voice. Even ‘hello’ sounds like ‘come here.'”
Warsan Shire’s poems reach into parts of your heart you forgot existed. Her voice is powerful and unforgettable. With her steady climb to fame, we can’t see what new work she’s going to churn out.
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