book review: milk and honey by rupi kaur

Poetry is a whole another language for me. A language that helps me understand things when no other language makes sense, a language that's the most beautiful part of any language, a language that I can speak when I can't bring myself to speak any other language.

When I am not writing it, I am reading it. And today, I want to share one gem of a book that internet showed me and it didn't take long for me to fall in love with it.

it's Rupi Kaur's poetry collection Milk And Honey

I first saw it on tumblr. Black cover, illustrations, lower letter writing; it was perfect. I read some of the excerpts from the book randomly and they were beautiful. In fact, they weren't only beautiful. They felt raw and open yet calming. They sounded as if they were poured from a pen that was weak but wasn't willing to stop, to accept its weakness, to stay firm until the fear of being weak was gone. I knew I needed that book in my life.

I searched it in the local bookstores but it wasn't available there. The only known store selling this book was 2 hours flight away. Finding it was hard, but I waited. A few weeks ago, I went to the city that was 2 hours flight away (Lahore - read about the trip here) and finding this book there was on the top of to-get-stuff list. I bought it and read it in like two sittings.

The thing about Milk And Honey is that you cannot dislike it even when you want to. The poetry is written in the simplest way possible, there's no rhyming, some of the pieces are just phrases that are broken in poetic style. The synopsis states the poetry in this book is about love, loss, trauma, abuse, healing and femininity,

The book is divided into 4 chapters: the hurting, the loving, the breaking, the healing

my favorite part has got to be the loving. All the pieces in that part are written simply, emotionally and are relatable. Another factor is that some of them are based on poetess' mother and I loved this fact the most. The whole book is filled with warm words that are welcoming, vulnerable, sad but what they are not in hopeless. This book is a masterpiece of optimism; it glows with it.

the piece I loved the most (it's from the loving part)

another piece that's just too fierce

I a d o r e d this book
Coming to the other side, there were things that I didn't like too much in the book. Some of the pieces were just too plain, some were the replica of the other poems in the book, and some were just there; without holding much of emotions like the rest of the mood. As much as I loved the whole milk and honey, this is something I felt too deeply as well.

But one thing is certain: it's one of those books I will read over and over again. I will bookmark the pieces I love, to return to them when everything in my head gets louder and poetry would be the only language that would make sense. I am so glad I finally got my hands on this book; a book I could say I needed in my life. Rupi Kaur is a poetic genius.

rating: 4/5 (highly recommended - some of the pieces are age restricted though)
what's your favorite poetry book? recommend me some

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