Poetry

Love, loss, trauma, abuse, healing, the vicious cycle of a woman's life. “Milk and Honey” is both poetry, and prose combined by the famous author, Rupi Kaur. It is a masterpiece written to encourage female power. Rupi had the ability to pour out all the emotions into one poetry, which I find incredible. It is split into four different parts, where Kaur takes us on a journey through her growth. Each part explains in depth the author's experiences of love, mentioning its worst and best parts, along with abuse and loss. It's filled with reality and mixed emotions. It is extremely helpful for those who have gone through the same things, assuring them that they’re not alone in this, and that everything eventually heals. This poem portrays the brutal and cruel sides of being a woman in our world today.

The self-published poetry book encourages female power; there's a chapter where it's constantly reminding females that self-love and care is a priority, which is “Healing”,and that after achieving them, everything else will fall in line. It explains how self-love is the very first step, almost making it seem as if nothing could be achieved without it. I feel like people frequently overlook the importance of self-love, while this poem proves otherwise. This poem focuses on the fact that no matter how empty and broken a female may feel, it all gets better, saying that “everything hurts”, “but everything can heal”(p.187).

The first section is “The Hurting”, which thoroughly walks you through the painful trauma of being sexually abused as a child. It also mentions how her father has let her down, that “he was supposed to be. The first male love” of her life but he's not even there. The absence of her father is the reason for her to fall in love with the worst kind of man since that's what he ever taught her. She's never experienced actual love in order to be able to notice it; she even quotes, “If I knew what safety looked like I would have spent less time falling into arms that were not”(p.104). The second section was “The Loving”, which is a detailed explanation of her affection towards her lover. Then comes the third section, known as “The Breaking”, where she explains how her lover only cared about his sexual needs, being too blind to recognize her worth, and so she says, “i was music but you had your ears cut off”(p.115). Lastly, comes the last section, which is “The Healing”. This is the beginning of realizing her self-worth, stating, “accept yourself as you were designed”(p.174).

I’d highly recommend reading this poetry as it is one of the most heart-touching and beautiful poems that I’ve read so far. If you’re a woman who’s been through or knows someone who’s been through either, love, loss, trauma, or abuse, then this poetry would undoubtedly have a big influence on the way you’ll perceive each one of them. Not only that, but believe me when I say that this poetry is relatable to the point where it would be able to make you feel better, both, emotionally and mentally. I’d say this is a 10 out of 10 without thinking twice!

By: Jana Mahmoud/ 2022

Where the sun is a mother and the flowers are her children, beautiful poems stem. Rupi Kaur is an Indian-Canadian poet who is 29 years old and has written a variety of poetry books. The Sun and Her Flowers is five chapters long and was published in 2017, which includes beautiful simplistic illustrations with each poem. This book embodies the themes of love, loss, femininity and healing. The five chapters of this book are Wilting, Falling, Rooting, Rising and Blooming.

The first chapter of the book named Wilting, put these in italics not quotation marks starts with the main character moving on from a breakup and reaching stages of denial, grief and jealousy. Her overwhelming and overpowering emotions lead her to destructive emotions, which soon lead her to begin to continue stages of denial to later gain the closure she craves so deeply. The second chapter which is called Falling, includes dealing with yourself and the emotions that come with your thoughts. The third chapter which is Rooting, centrally revolves around immigration and how immigrants often go through tiresome processes. The fourth chapter is Rising which is about moving on from a previous partner to the next, without being hesitant or feeling guilty emotions. The final chapter named Blooming is about loving yourself and reaching a new level of self-love, where self-worth is of utmost importance.

This poetry book is both beautiful and profound, through the showcasing and validation of emotions or thoughts that most young people are forced to endure on their path to their adult life. I would recommend this book to those who seek words of enlightenment and advice that can lead to a clearer understanding and help towards certain situations.

If I had to rate this book out of five stars, I would give it a four out of five as it does its job as a well-inspired book full of brilliant poems. Although many poems were a bit long for my liking, I found poems are better when a lot is said through a few words. A few illustrations were a bit too raw and left an uncomfortable feeling although this did not bother me as much as it did others. Something the author did that was great was adding the general idea of a poem, usually in one word at the end. This helped summarize each poem and would have made this book even better if it was done for every poem and not just the majority. For aspiring feminists, this book will show how important it is to advocate for women’s rights and an equal world. To be in touch with the raw and hidden parts of you are truly crucial for full self-love.

Overall this incredibly expressive book portrays many prominent issues that need to be discussed in order to someday be solved. Everyone should read this book, as it has an impact no other book can share.

By: Jumana Abdelaty/2022

Within every person, a civil war between their mind and heart occurs. Rupi Kaur’s book “Home Body” is a poetry book in which the author guides readers through a very intimate and contemplative voyage into one's past, present, and potential self. By bringing a spark into one's eye the book consists of four chapters, “Mind, Heart, Rest, and Awake.” Each chapter dives into raw and sensitive topics while exposing honest and real emotions through self conversations each individual has experienced. Starting off with the conflict that lives in a person's mind and heart the book transitions into healing and soon your “Awake” into a new and improved self. It dives into deep topics such as family life, mental health (depression & anxiety), femininity and masculinity, and self-love and acceptance. The purpose of this book is to help introduce a new and improved perspective not only in the way you view yourself but the things around you.

The Award-winning book“Home body” is one of the many outstanding poetry books Rupi Kaur’s has released. The book takes you on a four-stage emotional journey. Starting with the “Mind”, in chapter 1, in which the reader starts at their lowest point struggling with things like overthinking and self-doubt. By tapping into those locked away critical thoughts you are able to confront scars you had forgotten existed. Then, in chapter two comes the second phase - the Heart. This phase is all about seeking self-love and internal validation rather than searching for it externally. As the poet clearly articulates “it’s impossible for one person to fill you up in all the ways you need to be filled” (Kaur, 73) The third phase and the beginning of true recovery where one realizes the importance of pacing one's self, the third chapter “Rest” is the time for recalibration. As Kaur brilliantly puts it, “we can work at our own pace and still, be successful.” In the final chapter, to “Awake” is to embrace balance, acceptance, and a commitment to one’s self through which life takes on a brand new perspective, and all past pain and hurt propels us into an awakened state.

Overall, this book was very eye-opening and I was able to pinpoint many praises that elevated the book for me . Starting with her spectacular literacy devices that enable readers to both visualize and relate while also applying what’s being said to their personal lives. The book is filled with well-written similes, metaphors, repetition, etc that allowed me to really comprehend the idea trying to get across. Added to this, her lexical choice was solid as Kaur used very descriptive and wise words which helped her penetrate the emotions she wanted the reader to feel so effortlessly. For instance, in one of her poems, she uses different words with the same meaning and emotion behind them to really highlight the emotion and idea she wants the reader to feel. Not only did she execute her ideas through her outstanding words but the images corresponding to the poems are marvelous. The images and poems build on one another's ideas. Specifically, on page 61, an image of a broken clock that no longer works builds onto the idea of the poem which is you should never wait for someone to make you feel enough. Aside from her amazing writing skills, the topics themselves were very deep and interesting. Very relatable issues were talked about from many different perspectives enlightening the reader on different ways to approach issues. Moreover, it spread awareness on essential topics that are oftentimes pushed to the side such as depression and sexual assault which need to be addressed more. The author does an exquisite job of addressing these issues in a sensitive manner which is very eye-opening. Lastly, this book pushes the concepts of self-love, self-awareness, and self-empowerment. This book will definitely give you the confidence boost you need and the reality check that you should rely on yourself! Having an important person in your life should NEVER mean you rely your happiness and strength on them. Super clever. Super eye-opening.

Although enjoying many aspects of the book, with pros comes cons. After comparing this book to many other standard poetry books I realized that it was very short and resembled quotes more than actual poems. I personally finished the book in a day not because it was very enchanting but simply because the poems were very short. I would call these poems more “trendy Pinterest” quotes/poems more than actual standard poems. This would be a great book to read if wanting to start poetry books but if familiar with the style of poetry books you would find this book flat. Although the poems were very meaningful and had great messages behind them they lacked a variety of different types of poetry. She explores free verse poetry and doesn’t showcase others types for instance, rhyming or sonnets. By making the poems longer she would be able to express and dive into the emotions of the reader better and even explore different times of poems. Moreover, if you do not prefer a book that scouts inappropriate concepts such as, sex and bad words I would personally not invise this book. I don't have a problem with this kind of stuff but it would be a good thing to consider before starting it. These topics and words are not brought up often and it isn’t very graphic though. All in all, I enjoyed the book as a starting point for my love for poetry books but I would consider the points I mentioned before reading. I think she could make the poems more dilated and add to the variety of poetry styles she uses. Overall, I would rate this book a solid 3.7/5.

By: Sophie Darwish/2022