Milk & Honey by Rupi Kaur

Title: Milk and Honey

Author: Rupi Kaur

Date Read: June 25 2016

Genre: Contemporary Poetry
Published: November 4 2014 @ Createspace

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book was passionate and vulnerable, but also powerful and resonant. I really loved it. The beauty behind Kaur's work here is that, while this doesn't apply to every single poem in this collection, several of these poems have the ability to say a lot in very few words.

I would be the first to admit that contemporary poetry in this vein (such as Amanda Lovelace's "The Princess Saves Herself in this One") are not usually for me. I find the simplicity of it uninspired, and I find there to be a lack of the kinds of imagery and poetic diction that really appeal to me. However, Kaur has proven herself to be the exception to this rule for me. It's true that this collection doesn't paint as much imagery for me as I would have liked, but there are a lot of poems in this collection that made me think, and that seemed very poignant. For example, 

The drawings throughout also gave the collection a very particular feel and aesthetic that I really liked. The sketchy, imperfect doodles really made the book feel very personal, and I loved that touch.
That being said, there were still a few poems in this collection that fall into a subcategory that I personally find exhausting: the preachy feminist advice poem. This isn't to say that I dislike any of these things separately (here for feminism, literally always in need of advice) but I find these poems tend to all blend together and just echo the same sentiments over and over: love yourself, don't let a man define you, etc etc.


Overall, I'd say I really enjoyed this little gem and I'm looking forward to more from Rupi Kaur.