Book review: milk & honey by Rupi Kaur

I was never into poetry. I don’t think I’ve ever ready a poetry collection before this year. Look at me know, I just read my second poetry collection of the year. And I liked it. How can I not? Rupi Kaur’s milk & honey is raw. It’s soothing. And refreshing. It’s feminine and feminist. It’s also a book I’d love to give to friends. Or people with broken hearts.

It’s all BookTuber & author Jen Campbell’s fault I got interested into poetry. Not that it’s a bad thing. I read Ted Hughes’ Crow because of this, which was a five star read. It’s also on Jen’s Booktube channel I first heard about Rupi Kaur’s milk & honey. I can’t recall what she said about it, but the name of the book stuck in my head. It was on my wishlist for a couple of months and when SocialBookCo asked me if I wanted to review a book for them, I quickly picked this one from their list. So, now that we have established that I’m not a poetry buff and that, if you really are into poetry, my opinion isn’t worth much. But if you aren’t into poetry and want to test the waters, this one might be for you.

i’m losing parts of you like i lose eyelashes
unknowingly and everywhere

milk & honey wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. With its 200 pages it was already longer than I thought it was going to be. I didn’t read anything about the book beforehand, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover it’s about love. And about breaking up and piecing yourself back together afterwards. And about feminism. It’s a raw poetry collection, with poems like loose thoughts (don’t expect rhyme). Sometimes they’re soft, sometimes they lash out. Another nice surprise were the illustrations that are scattered through the book.

i don’t know why
i split myself open
for others knowing
sewing myself up
hurts this much
afterward

The collection consists of four parts: the first part is raw & hard, it’s called “the hurting”. It deals with earlier men in the author’s life. The second part, “the loving”, and the third part, “the breaking” read like you’re going through a relationship. While the second part is mostly sweet, the third part is painful. In the fourth part, “the healing” the poet talks about more than just healing your heart, but also about loving yourself. It sometimes felt a bit like reading motivational quotes on Pinterest, but in a less hollowed out way. I could also feel the fierceness and the anger in her poetry (through all four parts), which I really liked.

you deserve to be
completely found
in your surroundings
not lost within them

As I said in the beginning of this post: I really loved reading milk & honey. It was a very pleasant discovery. The content was so strong I won’t wait long before rereading. And if you’re looking for a gift for strong and/or heartbroken women in your life I wouldn’t hesitate giving milk & honey.