Thoughts on poems: Rupi Kaur
Flowering laurels in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
milk and honey
(a book by Rupi Kaur, 2015, Andrews McMeel publishing)
This book is lovely and feels honest. It is brief, filled with mostly one-page length poems. I read this book in about two hours and made notes along the way. I will not select entire individual poems. It is really worth the experience to read this book as a complete work.
I highlight two poems; the first is found on page 120. It is six short lines in length. Like all of Rupi Kaur’s poems that I have read, nothing is capitalized. This poem feels like the speaker has found some strength or at least some personal boundary to arm themselves from a previous lover that has abandoned them, yet keeps returning for their own comfort or pleasure despite the pain it causes the abandoned poet. Here is the first line: you were not wrong for leaving… .
Kaur’s poem reminds me of a song written and performed by a Mexican contemporary singer, Ana Gabriel, “Es Demasiado Tarde”. When the lover who chose to leave returns claiming he never successfully forgot her, the scorned lover explains what the title states: it is way too late. Link to Ana Gabriel: Es Demasiado Tarde (Remasterizado).
Stepping stones at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
The second poem I would like to reference by Rupi Kaur from milk and honey is found on page 202. This poem is dedicated “to all you young poets”. It is twelve lines reminding artists to never trade integrity for the sake of pleasing others. This is the first line: your art.
