Salt Nayyirah Waheed Quotes

if the ocean can calm itself, so can you. we are both salt water mixed with air.

i don't pay attention to the world ending. it has ended for me many times and began again in the morning.

i bleed every month. but do not die. how am i not magic. – the lie

where you are. is not who you are. – circumstances

you broke the ocean in half to be here. only to meet nothing that wants you. – immigrant

in our own ways we all break. it is okay to hold your heart outside of your body for days. months. years. at a time. – heal

both. i want to stay. i want to leave. i am three oceans away from my soul. – lost

there are feelings. you haven’t felt yet. give them time. they are almost here. – fresh

i have always been the woman of my dreams.

cruel mothers are still mothers. they make us wars. they make us revolution. they teach us the truth. early. mothers are humans. who sometimes give birth to their pain. instead of children. – hate

i think one of the most pathological things i have ever seen is stabbing someone and then telling them that their pain and anger over being stabbed is making you sad. – white guilt

no' might make them angry but it will make you free. - if no one has ever told you, your freedom is more important than their anger.

there is no healthier drug than creativity.

listen to my poems but do not look for me look for you.

would you still want to travel to that country if you could not take a camera with you. – a question of appropriation

you ask your heart why it is always hurting. it says ‘this is the only thing you will allow me to say to you. the only feeling you are willing to feel.

can we speak in flowers. it will be easier for me to understand.

go. enjoy. leave. it was all about you, anyway.

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.

poetry. is the fire leaving my body.

you. not wanting me. was the beginning of me wanting myself. thank you. -the hurt

sit in the ocean. it is one of the best medicines on the planet. – the water

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.

the worst thing that ever happened to the world was the white man coming across gun powder. –– the end of the world | the beginning of white supremacy

why can we never talk about the blood. the blood of our ancestors. the blood of our history. the blood between our legs. – blood

does he not remember he is half woman.

i found flaws and they were beautiful. – ugly

i will tell you, my daughter of your worth not your beauty every day.

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.

a lie is simply a lie. it draws its strength from belief. stop believing in what hurts you. – power

if the ocean can calm itself so can you. we are both salt water mixed with air. – meditation

if you show someone the sun in your bones and they reject you you must remember. they hurt themselves this very same way. – unable

you see your face. you see a flaw. how. if you are the only one who has this face. – the beauty construct

The thing you are most afraid to write Write that.

i wake to you everywhere. yet you are not here. – reach

my whole life i have ate my tongue. ate my tongue. ate my tongue. i am so full of my tongue you would think speaking is easy. but it is not. – for we who keep our lives in our mouths

it was only and ever love.

the thing you are most afraid to write. write that. – advice to young writers

i have lost millions and millions of words to fear. tell me that is not violence. - the deaths

if we. are with child. and you believe that fatherhood begins when my body pours a baby into your hands. not before. you do not deserve this child. you are a coward. – you are a father the moment you enter me

my heart is in my mind. i think this is why i am an artist.

sometimes the night wakes in the middle of me. and i can do nothing but become the moon.

leaving. doesn’t mean that you’ve left.

eyes that commit. that is what I am looking for.

what i never learned from my mother was that just because someone desires you does not mean they value you. desire is the kind of thing that eats you and leaves you starving.

i want more ‘men’ with flowers falling from their skin. more water in their eyes. more tremble in their bodies. more women in their hearts than on their hands. more softness in their height. more honesty in their voice. more wonder. more humility in their feet. – less

even the small poems mean something. they are often whales in the bodies of tiny fish.

the wounds have changed me. i am so soft with scars my skin breathes and beats stars.

if we wanted to. people of color could burn the world down. for what we have experienced. are experiencing. but we don’t. – how stunningly beautiful that our sacred respect for the earth. for life. is deeper than our rage

i like myself. when i am myself.

would you still want to travel to that country if you could not take a camera with you. -a question of appropriation

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

make sure they have fallen in love with your spirit. first. your body. second. –

decolonization requires acknowledging. that your needs and desires should never come at the expense of another’s life energy. it is being honest that you have been spoiled by a machine that is not feeding you freedom but feeding you the milk of pain. – the release

knowing your power is what creates humility. not know your power is what creates insecurity.

there is you and you. this is a relationship. this is the most important relationship.

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. – lighthouse

i knew you. before i met you. i’ve known you my whole life. – nafsi

being in love with my people does not mean i hate others. how ridiculous is that. – self

if we must both be right. we will lose each other. – exile

men give birth, too. to children. to longings. to dreams. that they must hide. their stomachs. their uteruses. their hungers. their softness. their cravings for touch. to be a man. is the thing that closes their light. and eats their eyes. – him

you. are your own standard of beauty. – mirror work

expect sadness like you expect rain. both cleanse you. – natural

her love. was the only medicine. the only medicine. that ever worked. and this is why she left. she wanted yours to work. too. – healer

i will tell you, my daughter of your worth not your beauty every day. (your beauty is a given. every being is born beautiful). knowing your worth can save your life. raising you on beauty alone you will be starved. you will be raw. you will be weak. an easy stomach. always in need of someone telling you how beautiful you are. – emotional nutrition

your soul stained my shoulders. my whole life smells like you. this will take time. undoing you from my blood.

when i am afraid to speak is when i speak. that is when it is most important. – the freedom in fear

there have been so many times i have seen a man wanting to weep but instead beat his heart until it was unconscious. – masculine

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

i lied. i told you i was not afraid to love you. then i walked away. and loved you. – i have spent my whole life alone. loving you. | when we choose fear

we are houses eaten by rivers because we do not know their smell.

white people try to take blackness. pour it out rub it into their skin and wear us like they know what we about. but honey it’s only ever gon’ be a suntan. you ain’t neva gon’ be black. – tan | stealing from the sun

the hard season will split you through. do not worry. you will bleed water. do not worry. this is grief. your face will fall out and down your skin and there will be scorching. but do not worry. keep speaking the years from their hiding places. keep coughing up smoke from all the deaths you have died. keep the rage tender. because the soft season will come. it will come. loud. ready. gulping. both hands in your chest. up all night. up all of the nights. to drink all damage into love. – therapy

if i write what you may feel but cannot say. it does not make me a poet. it makes me a bridge. and i am humbled and i am grateful to assist your heart in speaking. - grateful

she was a beautiful place to bare my legs.

she was flower salt in my heart, and she hurt beautifully.

flower work is not easy. remaining soft in fire takes time.

healing begins the moment you want it to

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

you. not wanting me. was the beginning of me wanting myself. thank you. – the hurt

never trust anyone who says they do not see color. this means to them you are invisible.

i am such a sensitive summer thing.

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

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

you can not remain a war between what you want to say (who you really are). and what you should say (who you pretend to be). your mouth was not designed to eat itself. – split

you will drown if you do not have boundaries. they are not optional. this structure counts on your inability to say no. mean no. they take no from our first breath. go back and return it to your mouth. your heart. your light. – swim | women of color

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

knowing your worth can save your life. raising you on beauty alone you will be starved. you will be raw. you will be weak. an easy stomach. always in need of someone telling you how beautiful you are. –

your heart is the softest place on earth. take care of it.

cry wild. you have probably never cried wild. but, you know what doors feel like. you have an intimacy with doors that is killing you -break

i am a brutally soft woman.

mothers are humans. who sometimes give birth to their pain. instead of children. –

your soul stained my shoulders. my whole life smells like you. this will take time. undoing you from my blood

illegitimate children is such a foreign concept to me. i was born from my mother and i am here. that is all the legitimacy i need. – the bastard construct

what we hide and do not say turns into another mouth that only we know.

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

i am a black wave in a white sea. always seen and unseen. – the difference

to not be safe on the earth. simply because of the color of your skin. how does a being survive this. – trayvon martin

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

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