Nejma Quotes

“i am mine.
before i am ever anyone else's.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, Nejma

“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, Nejma

“grieve. so that you can be free to feel something else.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“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, nejma

“be easy. take your time. you are coming home. to yourself. — the becoming”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“and i heard her say, 'you
are afraid of love. but
love is not afraid of you.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, Nejma

“the first time the caregiver saw it on the child. they said ‘no. don’t you dare. you will not grow up thinking you are unwanted. because your parents. chose themselves. over you. this will not be your story because it is not the truth. the truth. is your creation is not about them. you came through them, my love, they were your vessel. 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. you will want them. (and on odd and warm nights they will think of you and hold themselves tighter.) but. what you do not get. from them. does not make you less. does not make you unwanted. (trust that all you did not receive. all you need. will come to you. in time. the universe is infinite.’) — a love poem”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“all the women. in me. are tired.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“i will always be a translation.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“as you are.’ says the universe. ‘after…’ you answer. ‘as you are.’ says the universe. ‘before…’ you answer. ‘as you are.’ says the universe. ‘when…’ you answer. ‘as you are.’ says the universe. ‘how…’ you answer. ‘as you are.’ says the universe. ‘why…’ you answer. ‘because you are happening now. right now. right at this moment and your happening is beautiful. the thing that both keeps me alive and brings me to my knees. you don’t even know how breathtaking you are. as you are.’ says the universe through tears. — as you are | you are the prayer”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“Some words. The way they look at you...”
― Nayyirah Waheed, Nejma

“the cure for apathy is memory.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“sometimes i want to say it. and there is nothing in english. that will say it.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“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, Nejma

“a poem can eat a person whole. for years.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“yes. yes i do. have the right to be this lush and neverending.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, Nejma

“whether with a lover or none. i reek of love. i stink of love.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“the poem.
the one that is running through
your life.
pay attention.
to that poem.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, Nejma

“but this was never a relationship. i have no idea who you are.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“i have a life to garden. a multiverse to wake from sleep. — giants”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“there is a god in writing.
a soft. roaring. unconditional.
home of a god.
who prays to me.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, Nejma

“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. auden. thoreau. chaucer. thomas. raliegh. marlowe. burns. shelley. carroll. elliot…

(what is the necessity of a black child being this high off of whiteness.)

and so. we are here. brown babies. worshipping. feeding. the glutton that is white literature. even after it dies.


(years later. the conclusion:


shakespeare is relative.

white literature is relative.

that we are force fed the meat of
an animal
that our bodies will not recognize. as inherent nutrition.
is not relative.
is inert.)”
― Nayyirah Waheed , Nejma

“a friend. is someone who supports your breath.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, Nejma

“you are a flood in my hands.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“there is peaceful.
there is wild.
i am both at the same time.”
― nayyirah waheed, Nejma

“every poem. here. is an unwrite. of all that has been written in me without. permission.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“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, nejma

“i am trying to remember you and let you go at the same time. — the mourn”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“we need to share our wars.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma

“poetry alters my dna. every poem is a different life. every poem brings me closer to myself. and breaks open a new future inside of me.”
― Nayyirah Waheed, nejma