Warsan Shire and Rupi Kaur: An In Depth Analysis

Simran K. | Rutgers University '19 (click on colored tabs to be redirected to other pages)

[kaurandshire]

February 16!

February - give one fact/detail about your crush

Ahhhh, the person I like is very creative and I appreciate that about them: they love photography, love poetry, and love music, and they try to incorporate those things with one another which I find really really cool. 

16 - would you rather be anorexic or obese?

This question mostly brings back painful memories and just a lot of overall negative feelings I have harbored for as long as I can remember, and due to my mind immediately going to one of those choices, I feel like I still have a long way to go with my process in self acceptance and just my journey in becoming a healthier person. I think both of those options pose a threat to one’s mentality and can create so many issues in regards to self value and health, so just to be blunt, I would rather, like many other people will say nowadays, be healthy and happy and loved. 

Thank you for the question!

[kaurandshire]

lmao oct 13

October - what is your favorite movie?

Anytime someone asks me this, my mind immediately goes to Matilda first and I try to watch it at least once a year. 

13 - favorite subject in school?

College is interesting because it isn’t necessarily subjects but rather fields of studies and you hone in on your interests, and this semester I really enjoyed a class on the politics of bigotry, so it definitely involves a lot of history! 

:~) Thanks for the questions boo

[michaxl]

Send Me Your Birthday!

Month:

January - do you rather warm or cold weather?

February - give one fact/detail about your crush

March - favorite color?

April - what religion are you?

May - what is your eye color and hair color?

June - what is the best thing you’ve ever experienced?

July - what do your summers usually consist of?

August - what is the worst thing you’ve ever experienced?

September - would you rather be inside or outside?

October - what is your favorite movie?

November - what is your favorite food?

December - what do you want for christmas?

Day:

01 - what type of computer do you have?

02 - favorite web site?

03 - who would you consider your best friend on tumblr?

04 - do you play a musical instrument?

05 - do you want to play a musical instrument or another musical instrument?

06 - share one time that you let someone down

07 - favorite overall thing (can be anything)?

08 - bottled water or tap water?

09 - post your desktop background

10 - favorite blog on tumblr?

11 - what is your favorite letter of the alphabet?

12 - what is one word that you love?

13 - favorite subject in school?

14 - what do you want to be when you grow up?

15 - what time does your alarm clock go off?

16 - would you rather be anorexic or obese?

17 - what is your morning routine?

18 - sexual orientation?

19 - what do you look for in a significant other?

20 - what is the most expensive thing you own?

21 - why did you choose your url?

22 - what url would you like the most?

23 - what is your favorite app?

24 - favorite number?

25 - what is your favorite childhood memory?

26 - what is you most successful post?

27 - do you like or reblog things more often?

28 - do you think mcr will come back?

29 - what is one food that you despise?

30 - mouse or trackpad?

31 - can i talk to you about jesus christ our lord and savior?

[kaurandshire]

Quick question to the followers: is there a laptop in particular that you guys would recommend? I’m in the market for a new one and would love to get some other opinions because so far it has been an overwhelming search. 

[pluhmet]

[every-inch-a-lady]

Shame, by Warsan Shire

I don’t know when I first realised that I could eat whatever I want and then vomit it out, the knowledge was stunning and soon everyone loved me more; my mother, my friends, the men in the streets. Beauty is a strange place, a road sign in the distance that you never actually reach. The term bulimia in greek means ‘ravenous hunger’ and I was starving. It’s incredible how long your body can last on nothing until you lose everything.

Bulimia is a secret that rots your teeth, burst the blood vessels in your eyes and intimidates anyone that could ever dare to love you. You despise your own body and the irony of that is very cruel. Every single thing of joy, was corrupted by my illness. Music was used only to hide the sounds of my retching, film, to satiate the hunger when I had taken twelve diet pills and could not feel the tips of my fingers. That whole part of my life is almost a myth, I was twenty years old, killing myself and not one person noticed. I knew the consequences, I was already experiencing some - the enamel of my teeth abandoning me, my periods disappearing, my body just hurting all the time. 

I learnt how to lie with a beautiful skill, the careful calculation of how long after eating with your loved ones that you must excuse yourself to go to the bathroom before the food starts to digest. How to flush the toilet repeatedly or run the tap to hide the sounds, taking off all your clothes because the vomit always splashes back. How to hide the bleeding gums, the bloody nose, the bloating of face. I did nothing else, but gently manipulate everyone that cared about me.  

Then, a hammam in Marrakech, I watched the women walk around partially naked, the soft swell of belly, the thighs and hips, flesh being scrubbed and oiled and steamed, a woman with hips as wide as mine, with the same thickness in thighs, the same dimples on the small of back, same waist, navel, skin so carefully soft and human that I was afraid to look. Why did I hate my body when hers was the same and I could not stop looking. 

 Essentially, if our secrets are secrets because we are told to be ashamed, then we must share them.  There is no shame in being sad or struggling or trying to heal. We are all desperate, depraved and sacred. We are all terrible and brillIant. I can list all the things that can make a girl want to escape her own body (re: patriarchy). But I’d rather list all the things that make me want to stay in my body, and adorn it like a home, rub oils into my skin, tell it how sorry I am for trying to leave, for trying to hurt it into submission. 

Eating disorders don’t disappear, many have no idea that there is something wrong with the way they are hungry, with they way that they eat. That they exercise until they cannot move, that there is always a new diet, that the scales are the first thing to touch your body in the morning. We live in a world where the worst thing a woman could be is at peace with her body. We are obsessed with destroying, controlling and colonising everything, even our own bodies. I’m interested in kindness. 

My name is Warsan Shire and I survived bulimia and I have absolutely no shame. 

‘It took me Twenty-something years to learn how to love myself, I don’t have that kinda time to convince somebody else’ - Daniel Franzese 

[kaurandshire]

To the people that follow this blog, hello! First of all, I’d like to say thank you for the kind words and vibes that have been sent my way, especially in regards to this project! It really means a lot. It was a school project that went really well and allowed me to think a lot more critically and analytically, especially in regards to things we consume so easily through social media, like poetry and art! I just wanted to say that this is not my primary blog, thus explaining the reason why I have not been active here since December/January. I can definitely keep blogging here, if thats the kind of content people would like, but if anyone would like my personal, just shoot me a message!

Also, if you have any questions in general, send them my way, or if you have any comments, please tag me in them! I track the tag #kaurandshire!

[em0baby]

stick and poked a Warsan Shire quote on my thigh. The wreath was a stick and poke I did a while ago.

[paddington-two]

[kaurandshire]

[kaurandshire]

When I read this poem, I immediately think of how we are often told that we should treat people the way we want to be treated, how we should give love and give kindness, and it will be reciprocated. We often times want to see the good and the better in people, we hope that they will change. However, in this poem, what Kaur is saying is that if you keep giving and you get nothing in return, you will find yourself empty, and fast. The message of this poem leaves the reader a bit breathless in the sense that it is so upfront and honest, however, along with other of Kaur’s work, this becomes necessary. It is necessary for someone to tell us what we are doing is unhealthy and for them to do it in an upfront yet loving manner so that one can actually learn. Not everyone is like you, not everyone has good intentions. There are horrible people out there, who either hurt you knowingly or unknowingly, however, it is imperative to begin to realize that if you’re the only one putting effort in, whether it be a romantic relationship or platonic, the other person just does not care about you. They do not care about you if they are not willing to reciprocate certain feelings or actions and leave you feeling as if you’re the only one putting effort in. Chances are, if you feel like you’re the only one putting effort in, you probably are. Although Kaur does not outright say that you should cut people off or do certain things, she does do one thing in here as well as milk and honey, and that is a certain degree of self actualization and realization of self worth. She gives a narrative based off of her own experiences, which people may be able to relate to, and I think that if you can begin to see and recognize how bad it is for another person to undergo something, you can apply that same thing to yourself.

[kaurandshire]

Home by Warsan Shire

no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark you only run for the border when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbors running faster than you breath bloody in their throats the boy you went to school with who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory is holding a gun bigger than his body you only leave home when home won’t let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you fire under feet hot blood in your belly it’s not something you ever thought of doing until the blade burnt threats into your neck and even then you carried the anthem under your breath only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets sobbing as each mouthful of paper made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.

you have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land no one burns their palms under trains beneath carriages no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled means something more than journey. no one crawls under fences no one wants to be beaten pitied

no one chooses refugee camps or strip searches where your body is left aching or prison, because prison is safer than a city of fire and one prison guard in the night is better than a truckload of men who look like your father no one could take it no one could stomach it no one skin would be tough enough

the go home blacks refugees dirty immigrants asylum seekers sucking our country dry niggers with their hands out they smell strange savage messed up their country and now they want to mess ours up how do the words the dirty looks roll off your backs maybe because the blow is softer than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender than fourteen men between your legs or the insults are easier to swallow than rubble than bone than your child body in pieces. i want to go home, but home is the mouth of a shark home is the barrel of the gun and no one would leave home unless home chased you to the shore unless home told you to quicken your legs leave your clothes behind crawl through the desert wade through the oceans drown save be hunger beg forget pride your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear saying- leave, run away from me now i dont know what i’ve become but i know that anywhere is safer than here

This poem is reflective of what refugees see when they leave home, when they get on boats, when they come into countries more foreign to them than what the future holds. Warsan Shire clearly outlines not only the approach that those who are running feel, but she addresses what people say to those individuals who are running. This poem is painful to read. Here, words are not just words anymore, they are illustrating actions and pain individuals have to undergo. 

When Shire writes, “it’s not something you ever thought of doing/until the blade burnt threats into your neck/and even then you carried the anthem under/your breath”, I begin to imagine how people are being forced out of their homes and they are forced to leave with horrifying and only bad memories of what remains of their country, but even then, even with all the bad, there is still undying love left for what home used to be. That love may not be translated out loud in a bold fashion, but it is there. People will still yearn for home and to go home. 

What makes this poem work is the technique that Shire had implemented in order to get the severity of her point across. Like mentioned before, she is not just discussing the perspective of the people, she discusses the way in which other people react, and the way in which the country itself feels about watching its citizens, its children go. Shire is expressing how anything, any fate is better than dying in your own home due to it being unsafe. It is baffling how people have a tendency to call refugees invaders or say that they had chosen the life of undergoing horrible events, when, like anyone else, they would rather be home, but home just is not safe anymore. Sometimes, home chases you away just to make sure you stay alive.

[kaurandshire]

[paperlogic]

might be my favourite piece of advice ever

[petrichour]

‎later that night i held an atlas in my lap ran my fingers across the whole world and whisperedwhere does it hurt? it answered everywhere everywhere everywhere.

Warsan Shire (via petrichour)

[wordsnquotes]

I am a lover without a lover. I am lovely and lonely and I belong deeply to myself.

Warsan Shire (via wordsnquotes)

[thisismeandnooneelse]

Live.Lose.Learn