Milk and Honey
Milk and Honey is a beautiful, thoughtful book of poetry covering topics of abuse, love and feminism.
Poet and illustrator, Rupi Kaur, self-published her first book of poetry Milk and Honey in 2014 and recently published her second The Sun and Her Flowers.
I don’t remember the last time I read poetry, but it’s been quite some time and I wasn’t sure what to expect with Milk and Honey. I honestly just added it to my TBR list due to the buzz about it in the bookish world.
Thankful to be gifted this one for Christmas, I devoured it in one sitting.
I did that because I couldn’t put it down, but I did know that I would read it again and again, taking it all in more slowly to appreciate the prose.
I tested out some best practices for reading poetry:
- Read the poem out loud
- Discuss it with others
- Be open to many meanings
About the book:
Milk and Honey is divided into four chapters, and Kaur describes her experiences with violence, abuse, love and feminism through sweet, beautiful prose.
There were some lines that made me laugh out loud, and some made me pause and think for a few minutes.
From the back cover:
this is the journey of
surviving through poetry
this is the blood sweat tears
of twenty-one years
this is my heart
in your hands
this is
the hurting
the loving
the breaking
the healing- rupi kaur
I also want to note the illustrations throughout this book.
Visit Rupi Kaur’s Instagram and follow her!
A few of my favorites:
“you were temptingly beautiful / but stung when i got close”
“loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself”
“it takes grace / to remain kind / in cruel situations”
Would I recommend?
If you couldn’t tell by now, I would definitely recommend this book! In fact, I’ve already told everyone in my book club to pick up a copy of their own.
Excited to discuss these poems with others and explore more poetry this year!
