milk and honey

by Rupi Kaur

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 204
Rating:

Synopsis:

milk and honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache.

milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.

I ended up picking up Rupi Kaur’s milk and honey collection because Let’s Talk Bookish will be discussing “instapoetry” (Instagram poetry) on Friday, and I hadn’t knowingly read any, so I figured I’d try one of the famous ones and see what I think.

I get that people look down on Instapoetry and similar so I want to be clear, I don’t dislike it because it’s instapoetry — actually, I think that’s kinda cool, in that it makes poetry accessible to different people, and it’s written and enjoyed by people who might not have written or enjoyed poetry in more “traditional” formats.

Personally, I didn’t connect that much with Rupi Kaur’s poetry: it’s certainly easy to read, and I kinda liked the way it was matched with sketches that expressed something about each poem. She does have a way of putting things sometimes that puts something stark and horrible out there (particularly in the early section where sexual assault is a major theme) in a way that’s very clear and just… encapsulates a dreadful moment. For the most part, though, I didn’t find her poetry really got to me: it tends to the simple, clear, freeform style, and in a way it sometimes just feels like reading her disjointed thoughts — which is not my thing, much as it’s a valid way of self-expression and of playing with words even when those aren’t your actual thoughts (important not to assume the two are always the same).

Overall, not for me, though I understand the appeal.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)