Book Review: milk and honey by Rupi Kaur

milk and honey is a collection of poems that explores different themes such as abuse, loss, pain, love, healing, femininity. The book itself it split into 4 chapters, the first chapter explores abuse, the second looks at falling in love, the third deals with loss and the fourth is about healing. This collection of poems is a stunning look into life, love and loss. 

you were a dragon long before

he came around and said

you could fly

you will remain a dragon

long after he's left

Okay, first of all, I have to open this review by saying I LOVED this book, but I completely understand why people may evoke the completely opposite reaction. It's a love or hate kinda thing, I get it, but I find beauty in simplicity - look at my bookstagram photos for crying out loud! From the very first page, I felt myself connecting with these poems and with Kaur's experiences. I myself may not have been a victim of abuse, but as a woman I can understand where such feelings would come from - the suggestion that your body exists merely to please someone else. I may not have resonated as strongly with the first chapter, "the hurting", but the rest of the chapters felt as though they were written for me, and that is how I feel poetry should be. You either connect with it or you don't.

The second chapter "the loving" explores those heady days of new relationships and falling in love. You would expect these poems to be more romantic, and while a lot of them were, some just weren't. You can see how some of the hurting and the abuse have been carried forward into her new relationship. The third chapter "the breaking" quickly contrasts the previous with heart-wrenching descriptions of what it feels like to go through a breakup and the loneliness that follows.

"the healing" chapter was my favourite, just full of uplifting, inspiring, thoughtful pieces.The poems are so powerful and full of emotion and they really touched me. It's a book I can't wait to revisit and read more slowly, as initially I feel like I just devoured it. I did re-read certain passages at the time, but overall, I'd like to immerse myself in it again. It's just deep, honest, raw, beautiful, heartbreaking, passionate...

I love knowing how writing this book helped heal her after her experiences, because simply reading it helped heal some of mine.

I'll leave you with one of my favourites...

i want to apologise to all the women

i have called pretty.

before i've called them intelligent or brave.

i am sorry i made it sound as though

something as simple as what you're born with

is the most you have to be proud of

when your spirit has crushed mountains

from now on i will say things like, you are resilient

or, you are extraordinary.

not because i don't think you're pretty.

but because you are so much more than that

Johann

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