Nayyirah Waheed Quotes

i have never understood.
will
probably never understand.
the white mans lust
to eat the world.
to eat the universe. (mars is next)
why he was born with such a rabid
starvation.
why he feigns for power
like
crack rock. doing everything. and anything.
to have it.
no matter how deranged.
why he is in so much pain
he needs to rip the roots of happiness
from the earth
and
burn them into
his smile.
what happened in his relationship with our mother.
that he needs to set a person on fire.
watch them burn.
to
feel powerful.
not every white man
is
born this way,
but,
it stands to remain
there are many
who
are. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

your skin smells like light. i think you are the moon. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

We
softened. and broke. and kneeled over in pain. and sang. and threw ourselves against the walls. against each other. and hid. and caved. and opened. and tossed ourselves into work. and danced. and shrank. and closed. and ate. and bled. and held on. and ignored. and accepted. and lied. and laughed. and created. and undid. and drank. and drugged. and loved something. someone. somewhere. ourselves. fiercer. and hated. something. someone. somewhere. fiercer. and swam. and rejected. and yearned. and distanced. and clawed. and touched. and some of us will disown you. because you hurt too much. some of us will have to say your name for a year. before we are able to sleep. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

If we must
both
be right.
we will
lose
each other. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

You
not wanting me
was
the beginning of me
wanting myself
thank you ~ Nayyirah Waheed

as an artist, i do not always enjoy the questions, 'what were you thinking when you wrote this. what was the inspiration behind this.' these questions imply that there is always thought involved in creation. for me it is the exact opposite. creativity is the act of experiencing the unconscious in the conscious. sometimes, i want to say, without sarcasm, 'i do not know what my soul was thinking when i wrote that poem, i was too busy listening. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Yes. yes i do. have the right to be this lush and neverending. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

There have been so many times
i have seen a man wanting to weep
but
instead
beat his heart until it was unconscious. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

length of our love. she was your eyes the day i met you. remember, you and i. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

No'
might make them angry
but
it will make
you
free. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Put some honey and sea
water by your bed.
acknowledge. that your being needs sweetness
and cleansing.
that it is sore.
that you are. soft.
- orishas ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Sometimes i want to say it. and there is nothing in english. that will say it. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

i am a brutally soft woman. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

There is a god in writing.
a soft. roaring. unconditional.
home of a god.
who prays to me. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

she asked 'you are in love what does love look like' to which i replied 'like everything i've ever lost come back to me. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

my mother gave me islam.

my father gave me the god of absence.

and here i am.

a religion made of myself. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

I do not expect my child's respect.
just because i have given birth to their life.
does not mean they owe me.
anything.
what i want most
is to look into my child's eyes
and
see
that i have given birth
to
a
heart.
have
honored.
held and feed.
someones
heart.
from the moment we first met.
and
they love me for it. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Just because someone desires you, it does not mean that they value you.
Read it over.
Again.
Let those words resonate in your mind. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Some words build houses in your throat. and they live there, content and on fire. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

i am the line. on both sides there are songs in my name. – bi ~ Nayyirah Waheed

You are a flood in my hands. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

all the women. in me. are tired. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

we are never our own.
we must change this fact.

- acceptance ~ Nayyirah Waheed

When you meet that person. a person. one of your soulmates. let the connection. relationship be what it is. it may be five mins. five hours. five days. five months. five years. a lifetime. let it manifest itself, the way it is meant to. it has an organic destiny. this way if it stays or if it leaves, you will be softer from having been loved this authentically. souls come into, return, open, and sweep through your life for a myriad of reasons, let them be who and what they are meant. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

you do not have to be a fire
for
every mountain blocking you.
you could be a water
and
soft river your way to freedom
too.

- options ~ Nayyirah Waheed

i learned shukran. (thank you) first. shukran. (thank you) for this meal. shukran. (thank you) for making this for me. shukran. for everything. and in the midst of all of this. gratitude. la. (no) was lost. before. i ever found it. - the blunt force of gratitude ~ Nayyirah Waheed

My english is broken.
on purpose.
you
have to try harder to understand
me.
breaking this language
you so love
is my pleasure.
in your arrogance
you presume that i want your
skinny language.
that my mouth is building
a room for
it
in the back of my throat.
it is not.
i have seven different words for love. you have only one. that makes a lot of sense ~ Nayyirah Waheed

you are not a mistake. you are too many exquisite details to be a mistake. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

when you allow that man. to walk through your children. plant his feet. in their veins. hold their voices. necks. bodies. inside his violence. you are no longer a mother. when you give him the key to that door. because you need to be loved by someone. you have seasoned them for the wolf. burned their childhood into a fantasy. it's going to take a third of their lives. all the courage. from their cells to their hair. to learn the alchemetic formula that turns that kind of betrayal. a demothering. soft. liveable. – before you get that key made ~ Nayyirah Waheed

If
the ocean
can calm itself,
so can you.
we
are both
salt water
mixed with
air. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

eyes that commit. that is what I am looking for. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

If you deserve
honey
mine will flow from my arms to
yours
no effort, no asking.
but, if there is none
and
you feel wind instead.
know
that my spirit already
senses that
when you smell sweetness
you
begin harvesting blades in your
hands.
- kindness is a form of intelligence ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Do not choose the lesser life. do you hear me. do you hear me. choose the life that is. yours. the life that is seducing your lungs. that is dripping down your chin. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

i am a silk field of vulnerability. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

when,' is not something you ask someone when the bodies of their aunt. uncle. friends. first love. cannot be found. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

I want to keep our body above water. you want to make us a fish. - fish ~ Nayyirah Waheed

can you be a daughter.
if you have no
mother language."
- african american iii ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Be easy. take your time. you are coming home. to yourself. - the becoming ~ Nayyirah Waheed

healing
begins
the moment
you
want it to ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Your soul stained my shoulders. my whole life smells like you. this will take time. undoing you from my blood. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

stay is a sensitive word.
we wear
who stayed
and
who left
in our skin forever ~ Nayyirah Waheed

If someone does not want me it is not the end of the world. But if I do not want me, the world is nothing but endings. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

But this was never a relationship. i have no idea who you are. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Some words. The way they look at you... ~ Nayyirah Waheed

The thing you are most
afraid to write
Write that. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

you see how your body is beginning to slow glow with stars. you are remembering. you are mine. you have never been anything else. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

I don't pay attention to the
world Ending.
It has ended for me
many Times
and began again in the morning. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

As a writer, if someone falls in love with my work, I know they have fallen in love with my mind. Having no idea what my face looks like, they chose my mind. Art may be the only place a woman can be whole without being seen. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

when you are struggling
in your
writing (art)
it usually means
you
are hearing one thing.
but writing (creating) another.

- honest | risk ~ Nayyirah Waheed

the cure for apathy is memory. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

our tragedy begins humid.
in a humid classroom.
with a humid text book. breaking into us.
stealing us from ourselves.
one poem. at a time.

it begins with shakespeare.

the hot wash.
the cool acid. of
dead white men and women. people.

each one a storm.

crashing. into our young houses.
making us islands. easy isolations.
until we are so beleaguered and
swollen
with a definition of poetry that is white skin and
not us.
that we tuck our scalding. our soreness.
behind ourselves and
learn
poetry.
as trauma. as violence. as erasure.
another place we do not exist.
another form of exile
where we should praise. honor. our own starvation.

the little bits of langston. phyllis wheatley.
and
angelou during black history month. are the crumbs. are the minor boats.
that give us slight rest.

to be waterdrugged into rejecting the nuances of
my own bursting
extraordinary
self.
and to have
this
be
called
education.

to take my name out of my name.
out of where my native poetry lives. in me.
and
replace it with keats. browning. dickson. wolf. joyce. wilde. wolfe. plath. bronte. hemingway. hughes. byron. frost. cummings. kipling. poe. austen. whitman. blake. longfellow. wordsworth. duffy. twain. emerson. yeats. tennyson. a ~ Nayyirah Waheed

expect sadness
like
you expect rain.
both,
cleanse you. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

I knew you
before
i met you.
i've known you my whole life. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

i like myself. when i am myself. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

it was only and ever love. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

as a child
there was either
books
or
pain.
i chose books.

-how i became a writer ~ Nayyirah Waheed

You travel to lush looted countries. parts of earth laying on their sides. barely breathing. hot with rust, infection, and tourist anemia. you and your camera arrive. start tearing at bodies with your lust. it's harmless. appreciating culture. sharing. honoring clothing. the way certain skin exists. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Grieve. so that you can be free to feel something else. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

i want work that is a relentless oasis. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

he was so beautiful because when he held her he was not concerned with 'being a man.' 'being a man' had nothing to do with this. these flowers pouring from his chest. – weightless ~ Nayyirah Waheed

soon
the moon will come from my lips
and
you will not remember your name. – oshún ~ Nayyirah Waheed

What we hide and do not say turns into another mouth that only we know. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Listen to my poems
but do not look for me
look for you. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

the poem.
the one that is running through
your life.
pay attention.
to that poem. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

i am a woman and a poem. – visceral ~ Nayyirah Waheed

I lost a whole continent.
a whole continent from my memory.
unlike all other hyphenated americans
my hyphen is made of blood.
when africa says hello
my mouth is a heartbreak
because i have nothing in my tongue
to answer her.
i don't know how to say hello to my mother. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Sometimes the night wakes in the middle of me. and i can do nothing but become the moon. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Never
trust anyone
who says
they do not see color.
this means
to them,
you are invisible. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

there is no healthier drug than creativity. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

I want to live so densely. lush. and slow in the next few years, that a year becomes ten years, and my past becomes only a page in the book of my life. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

she was a beautiful place to bare my legs. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Sometimes
the beauty of my people
is
so
thick and intricate.
i spend days
trying
to undo my eyes
so
i can sleep. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

You are a story. do not become a word. one word. because you want to be loved. love does not ask you to be nothing for something. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

The truth is
you were born for you.
you were wanted by you.
you came for you.
you are here for you.
your existence is yours.
yes. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

And i heard her say, 'you
are afraid of love. but
love is not afraid of you. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

I will always be a translation. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

It is being honest
about
my pain
that
makes me invincible. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

I believe that everyone in the world.
has
one poem.
that is their soulmate. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

you and the poems have a lot to talk about. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Does he not remember he is half woman. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

as a woman i know the difference between appreciation and teeth. what really hurts is that as a girl i had to know the same thing. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

I am your friend. a soul for your soul. a place for your life. home. know this. sun or water. here or away. we are a lighthouse. we leave. and we stay. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

if
a man
can
only show vulnerability
for
what is between my legs.
can
only
be
a
heart
during
sex.
if an orgasm
is
the only way
he
can
weep.
what is his life
but
a cage. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

anger. is often grief that has been silent for too long. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

poetry.
is the fire leaving my body. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

They take no from our first breath. go back and return it to your mouth. your heart. your light. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

there is peaceful.
there is wild.
i am both at the same time. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

apologize to your body.
maybe,
that's where the healing
begins. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Poetry is evidence that the heart thinks and the mind feels. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

the rain in this room is low and thick
and undressing my heart through the air. – intimacy ~ Nayyirah Waheed

I go. with all the nothings,all the myths and the flawings, and return full. a new metal. a waterlight ~ Nayyirah Waheed

i am such a sensitive summer thing. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

I will be lost and unlost, over
and over again, relax love. You
were meant to be this glorious.
Epic. Story. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Chemistry is you touching my arm and it setting fire to my mind
Nayyirah Waheed ~ Nayyirah Waheed

i will. and this will end. - closure | dankyes ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Even the small poems mean something. they are often whales in the bodies of tiny fish. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

water clings to my wrists. it has been my fragrance since birth. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

Whether with a lover or none. i reek of love. i stink of love. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

trust your work. ~ Nayyirah Waheed

The Gallop of Love ~The beginnings of love are mysterious as one is overcome by unexpected feelings and attraction toward another. What burns brightly in our hearts when we feel romance comes out of the best of us as we bear it like a holy chalice. That's at least the motions I went through when I first discovered it. But where does that feeling go if it ceases to relinquish? ~ Sehra Waheed