I know how you feel, I was pretty resistant to jumping on the "Milk and Honey" train when the book first started to blow up. I wasn't a fan of poetry and books with a lot of hype always tended to disappoint me, so I just skipped over it. However, when I went to Books-a-Million the other day with one of my suite-mates, Destinee, she pointed to it on the shelf and shrieked. She peaked my interest, but once I read the title I groaned.
"But you'll love it!" she said over and over again, shoving the book into my hands. Finally, I caved. I dropped $15.00 on that little black book and gave it a new home. Later that night, I cracked it open.
I finished it in half-an-hour. I burned through that book like a wildfire. Granted, many of the poems are between two and five lines, but still. I'm a little proud of myself.
My first impression of these poems was (and I'm not exaggerating) holy sh*t. I'm not a poetry person, never have been, but if there are more poems out there similar to Rupi Kaur's, I just might become a poetry nut. I'd like to even write some if I could figure out how. For lack of a better term, the poems in "Milk and Honey" are simply breathtaking. They made me smile, cry, laugh, ache, and think. They made me nostalgic and optimistic and homesick.
The poems were not only eloquently written, they were heart wrenching. As my roommate, Lauren, put it, "these make me feel emotions I didn't even know I felt,". I couldn't think of a more perfect description. Kaur gets to the root of human struggles, more specifically, women's struggles. But, I've seen a lot of people calling "Milk and Honey" a book written for women alone.
They couldn't be more wrong.
This book is for everyone. Every race, gender, religion. Everyone will find value in this book, whether it be in one poem, one part, or the entire thing. The emotion behind the poems are so raw and real, there isn't a soul in existence that will not feel Kaur's pain. Let me tell you, some of the poems are tough to read. The pain almost to difficult to bare, but if she can get through the actual situation, you can get through the few lines.
You will be stronger having read this book. You will be more empowered, more understanding, more intelligent. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Buy it.
Now.
Yes, you.
Go get it.
"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
