Today we are excited to share with you a book that resonated deeply with us.
You have probably already heard of it.
“Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur is a bestseller that has sold over 2.5 million copies. This book is a collection of poems written about significant periods of her life. It has had a bit of controversy but in our humble opinions, the book has played a role in our own personal healing journeys. R also uses poetry to process her experiences (you can find some of her work in an earlier blog post) – it’s a language that the heart understands when the mind is not feeling well or is experiencing fog and drought.
This book received some criticism for how simplified it is – it was bashed for being a part of “instagram culture” – giving a watered-down version of poetry, as some have said. Poets were concerned that the book was an insult to “real” poetry and that Kaur’s writing style seemed like paraphrase poetry. What these critics failed to understand was that she wrote the book about trauma and healing. A traumatized brain is often not capable of comprehending complicated sentences. Especially when we ourselves are having a hard time forming our own. It’s sometimes difficult to dig deep and understand the emotions that go hand-in-hand with trauma. People with PTSD can sometimes only focus on what is directly in front of us and NEED everything step by step / simplified. If things seem too complicated, our brains may have a hard time absorbing the information presented. In order to get back to our personal ‘normal’ (whatever that might look like) … we have to give ourselves the space to heal and allow our minds to go at their own pace. We need to feel safe and at peace before our brains can take the next step to stretch it’s capabilities again.
Sometimes, simple is good.
To a reader who can’t fully relate, they may find themselves agreeing with some of the critics, but to us, Rupi’s words resonated. She is able to take the emotions and paint a perfect picture. She takes the realities and formats them into ways that are easier to understand. She finds the words that we struggle to find ourselves.
All that aside, these simple, honest poems really put to words some feelings that are hard to articulate. They make us feel understood and we wanted to share some of our favourites with you!
-R+K
the universe took its time on you
rupi kaur
crafted you precisely
so you could offer the world
something distinct from everyone else
so when you doubt
how you were created
you doubt an energy that is greater than us both
trying to convince myself
i am allowed
to take up space
is like writing with
my left hand
when i was born
to use my right
rupi kaur
and here you are living
despite it all
rupi kaur
sex takes the consent of two
if one person is lying there not doing anything
cause they are not ready
or not in the mood
Or simply dont want to
yet the other is having sex
with their body its not love
its rape
rupi kaur
you were so afraid
of my voice
i decided to be
afraid of it to
rupi kaur
the world
gives you
so much pain
and here you are
making gold out of it
rupi kaur
