Author: Rupi Kaur
Published by Createspace
Genre: Poetry
Pages: 204
“milk and honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. It is about the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose, deals with a different pain, heals a different heartache. milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.” -Goodreads
Review:
After about two months of searching and trying to find the cheapest price, I finally got this book. Right, when I opened the package I had hardly taken a picture to put on my Instagram story before I dove in. I know you are supposed to read a poem book slowly, or maybe you’re not but I feel like that is the right way to read one, but I devoured that in two days. I absolutely loved it and after I try and finish the two books I am reading I think I am going to start just slowly indulging myself by reading one or two every once in awhile.
I am really excited to do this review because there isn’t any possible way to spoil it so I can talk about all parts beginning through the end. So to start this blog of I would just like to say that Rupi Kaur is amazing. She has made poems about so much uncomfortable (or at least other people think they are uncomfortable) problems. I thought how she wrote her poems was so full of emotion (duh) and spoke to me on so many levels. Even the ones with less than ten words were masterpieces. I don’t know who she is or how her life has been lived but through her poems, I feel as though we have sat down and had this long personal chat about her life and know all her deepest emotions.
I have never read a book of poems before but I think after this book I have a whole new world opened up to me. Ever since I heard about this book and saw its beautiful cover I knew I wanted it and I knew I had to have it. I also read some of it in Target once in December and instantly fell in love and was on the hunt for a cheaper one ever since. the poems were deep and even though lots were short they spoke very deeply about men and women and relationships and love. It was split into four sections: the hurting, the loving, the breaking, and the healing. I want to review each section with you guys.
The Hurting:
So this little I guess chapter is about I am thinking her teen years and having abusive/absent fathers, submissive mother, rape, and other things. I thought it was very deep but mostly just random, unlike the other sections which were exactly what I was expecting so I don’t care that much but I did like how everything in the other three sections of the book was very storylike and a progression. I did however like these very much. My favorite poem in this section was:
“You pinned my legs to the ground with your feet and demanded I stand up.”
and since I can’t just choose the one here is another one:
“You have sadness living in places sadness shouldn’t live”
The Loving:
this was my second favorite sections. I really loved how it went from happy to dark and disastrous really quickly. I thought how it basically came off as a story was really beautiful. she had some really deep poems in here, some more graphic ones, and some emotional ones. My favorite was:
“no it won’t be love at first sight when we meet it’ll be love at first remembrance cause i’ve seen you in my mother’s eyes when she tells me to marry the type of man i’d want to raise my son to be like”
Honorable mentions:
“my favorite thing about you is your smell you smell like earth herbs gardens a little more human thanthe rest of us”
“i know i should crumble for better reasons but have you seen that boy he brings the sun to its knees every night”
“you might not have been my first love but you were the love that made all the other loves irrelevant”
*just wanted to add that I am only including shorter poems but there are longer ones that are my favorite I just don’t want to type that much
The Breaking:
This was very heartbreaking. I feel like that was pun because this section is of heartbreak. I don’t really know. All I know is that I was left feeling sad and depressed after reading this because it was about heartbreak and heartbreak is tough. I felt like she did a great job conveying her feelings in the story. One of my favorites was:
“you musn’t have to make them want you they must want you themselves”
The Healing:
This was my absolute favorite section. I loved everything about it. I thought there were good mottos to live by. I saw a lot of strength through this story. I thought the author did well to show us her growth and how even though it hurts it will not hurt forever and when it stops hurting you can turn your life around to being the most epic person you really are. one of my favorites were:
“accept yourself as you were designed”
“the thing about writing is I can’t tell if it’s healing or destroying me”
To wrap up this blog post, I want to leave saying that everyone should read this. I mean it is pretty easy if someone doesnt like to read long novels becuase it is a poem book. I believe it was very inspirational and touching and emotional. I loved it so much. The hype about this book was true. It was a stunning read. Hope you enjoyed this blog.
Star Rating: 5
Have you read this? What is your favorite poem? If you haven’t, what is stopping you?