Spoken word poetry captured my heart the summer before I started my freshman year at Troy U, and my love for it has only blossomed since then. Here are 25 quotes from a few of my favorite spoken word artists that will make you look at love, heartbreak and everything in between a little differently.

1. “You can't make homes out of human beings. Someone should have already told you that”

— Warsan Shire

2. "There is nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline no matter how many times it’s sent away."

— Sarah Kay

3. "Hearts are still something like sweatshirts. When you leave them in someone else’s home for too long, well, it’s not completely your's anymore."

— Miles Hodges

4. “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."

— Warson Shire

5. "The moment you feel you have to prove your worth to someone is the moment to absolutely and utterly walk away."

— Alysia Harris

6. For me, believing in things often feels like a game of darts. When I do indeed believe in something, someone usually takes that thing and nooses it to the hip of a train I'll never be able to catch.”

— Miles Hodges

7. “Summer eventually ends, and when it does, we stash it away like a stolen treasure. We commit it to the part of our memories that is only to be spoken of through warmly cryptic nostalgia. The kind of thing one brushes over during a dinner conversation with a soft chuckle. ‘Well, that was just Summer…’ we say, and all is forgiven.”

— Miles Hodges

8. “Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers, your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal. Believe me, I've tried.”

― Sarah Kay

9. "We are more than the worst thing that's ever happened to us. All of us need to stop apologizing for having been to hell and come back breathing."

— Clementine Von Radics

10. "It’s not my responsibility to be beautiful. I’m not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me."

— Warsan Shire

11. "He never broke my heart. He only turned it into a compass that always points me back to him."

— Clementine Von Radics

12. “We spelled love g-i-v-e. I never wanted to hide my body from him. If I could have I would have given it all away with the rest of me. I did not know it was possible to save some things for myself.”

— Sarah Kay, “Private Parts”

13. “Every mouth you’ve ever kissed was just practice. I don’t mind tasting them in the memory of your mouth. They were a long hall way, a door half open, a single suit case still on the conveyor belt. Was it a long journey? Did it take you long to find me? You’re here now, welcome home.”

― Warsan Shire

14. “I loved you the same way that I learned how to ride a bike: Scared… but reckless.”

― Rudy Francisco

15. "His eyes were the same color as the sea in a postcard someone sends you when they love you, but not enough to stay."

— Warsan Shire

16. "You are on the floor crying, and you have been on the floor crying for days. This is you being brave. This is you getting through it as best you know how. No one else can decide what your tough looks like."

— Clementine Von Radics

17. “You cracked hourglass, with sand spilling from behind your ribs: you wasted my time.”

— Rudy Francisco

18. "I'm not sure how you feel about me or if you dream about us in your spare time, but I do know how you feel about words. And I'm pretty sure our souls rhyme."

— Alysia Harris

19. “The human heart beats approximately 4,000 times per hour and each pulse, each throb, each palpitation is a trophy engraved with the words ‘you are still alive.’ You are still alive. Act like it.”

― Rudy Francisco

20. "You never need to apologize for how you choose to survive."

— Clementine Von Radics

21. “One day the universe will curl up beside you and begin to purr. Don`t worry. You`ll know exactly where to place your hands.”

— Alysia Harris

22. “You can only fit so many words in a postcard, only so many in a phone call, only so many into space before you forget that words are sometimes used for things other than filling emptiness.”

― Sarah Kay

23. "Excuse the ashes. They're just evidence of how brightly she can glow."

— Alysia Harris

24. “I'm learning that everything doesn't always come back the way you send it. Sometimes, love is more brick and less boomerang.”

― Rudy Francisco, No Gravity

25. “To my daughter I will say, when men come, set yourself on fire.”

― Warsan Shire