After copious amounts of time in the library wandering through the poetry section searching through the post-modernists, the romantics, the classics I stumbled upon the modern poet Rupi Kaur and her book Milk and Honey. The cover, with its minimalist art cover and smooth midnight texture instantly caught my attention. I had heard of her writing before but had never really sought her out and now with this copy in my hand it was due time to understand what everyone was talking about.
That night I immediately started thumbing through the first page and soon enough I was halfway through. By the time it was 1 in the morning I was finished with it.
A lot of things grabbed my intrigue and kept me there.
It was reminiscent, almost calling awake the 14 year old me that wanted to be a poetess and
was obsessed with delicate words like whisper and metaphors about women being fires.
However, the same magic that those words evoked before seemed hollow now. The thoughts
that would seem genuine before seemed deflated of their truth. Perhaps it was because I had
seen too many prose accounts on twitter that wrote similar ideas. Or because since then I had been
introduced to writers like Anne Sexton and the elusively tragic Sylvia Plath.
Although I had to remind myself that this was a modern rendering of poetry and the popularity that her book received has opened many people to the intimidating world of verse and that will always be a good thing.
The drawings scattered throughout the book reminded me of when I was younger and I would read Where the Sidewalk Ends and the nostalgia along with the complementary way they seemed to suit each poem was gratifying.
Even though most verses came off as cliche, like quotes that you'd find in the inspirational section of
birthday cards I was surprised with the way she described her relationship between her parents, how silence was a person at the dinner-table, or the feeling of being abused by the ones that are supposed to love you.
All in all, even though it's not something I would read again and some things came off as a lazy effort, it is beautiful as an entire body of art and gives me hope that more writers will follow in her footsteps and construct their own versions of poetry for the 21st century.
thank you for reading.
sincerely,
your humble narrator
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