Milk and Honey : Rupi Kaur

While surfing through the catalog of books that were listed on Amazon I stumbled upon this book which was called 'Milk and Honey' written by Rupi Kaur. At the very first appearance the cover of the book will not appear to be interesting except the title of the book. Then again there is a saying "Never judge a book by its cover" and this saying held its ground in this book. The narrative of the book is so beautiful that once you start going through the pages of the book you will start seeing the events through the author's eyes. 

Canadian poet and writer Rupi Kaur provides a view to that section of the society where the mind revolts in silence and seek attention. The writings of the book provide a mixed feeling of passion, fiery and self-control.

'Milk and Honey' provides its readers with a glimpse of the different phases that exist in a relationship. The author beautifully depicts the phases in poems and writings. The pictures drawn by the author provides a life to each and every word of the book. Divided into four sections : the hurting, the loving, the breaking and the healing along with the description “This is the journey of/ surviving through poetry/this is the blood sweat tears/of twenty-one years/this is my heart/in your hands/ this is/the hurting/the loving/the breaking/the healing,” opens up to readers from the start.

The poetry begins with the beautiful lines where the speaker says, “my heart woke me crying last night/how can I help I begged/my heart said/write the book.” In the beginning the speaker depicts the pain and the helplessness of a little girl who suffers at the hands of society. The words appeared to flow directly from the hurt of the speaker rather than from her mind.

In ‘the hurting’ there exists pain and suffering of the girl who endures it with her mouth shut and heart revolting. Sadness and emptiness fill the mind when a void gets created in the midst of wholesomeness. These feelings appear to be hereditary when a daughter sees her mother to be treated the same way.

‘The loving’ creates a new space in the book as it shows the flow of love and passion of a person towards another. The writings become sensual as the girls starts to experience love. The author goes on to describe the feelings and passion that comes into existence between two persons as they fall for each other in simplified and short poems.

‘The breaking’ changes the flow of the writings and takes the readers’ mind to a place where love fails and pain takes its place in the heart of a person. We tend to rely heavily on fate and when we are in our mind fate starts to play a major role of keeping alive the hope that we will be reunited with our loved ones. Kaur beautifully describes the thoughts that reside in the mind of young heartbroken people and the thoughts that come to their mind when the ones that had once left them tries to make a way back.

Finally, ‘the healing’ speaks of ways to heal oneself after they are left broken by others. The author speaks about how you can fall in love with the solitude and how everything can start to change for better once you start the process of healing.

In the end the book provides us with an image of identity and independence. Kaur sends a message to its readers to find ways to embrace one’s freedom. It is important to seek beauty within ourselves and need to stop relying on the outer world for approval. Kaur writes, “If you are not enough for yourself/you will never be enough/for someone else.” These lines provide a glimpse of how we can overcome our feelings of emptiness and incompetence.

It may or may not be possible to relate our feelings and emotions to that of the book, but I think some lines can always be related to our lives. This book is a reminder to ourselves that we must embrace our emotions and feelings. The book should be read by all.