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A New Appreciation For Poetry

A reflection on Rupi Kaur's poetry and prose in Milk and Honey.

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A New Appreciation For Poetry
Megan Keane's Photo

When you look out the window you can almost feel the winter air nipping at your nose. Leaving your house is 10x more difficult now than ever. In fact, since coming home I have attempted to spend every day inside. Staying inside gets boring, unfortunately, and you might come down with a little bit of cabin fever. To avoid this, I like to bury my nose in a good book and lose myself for a few hours.

Recently, I have read through Rupi Kaur's book "Milk and Honey." This book was on my to-be-read list since pictures of Rupi's beautiful words were posted all over social media. Finally, toward the end of finals week, I decided to treat myself and I picked it up.

That night, I tore through it. It took me maybe an hour and a half to get through because I was wrapped up in her words.

Poetry has never been my thing. I prefer stories of heroes taking down the villain. I prefer the high school romance novels about the quarterback falling in love with the yearbook editor. My taste in books is cliche, but if you need something to read I'm the girl to come to.

That being said, I decided to give poetry a try with "Milk and Honey" and I was pleasantly surprised. While some of the poems did not relate to me, many resonated in my heart. I folded over the pages to the ones that I understood and left the ones I didn't. I plan to go back in a year or so and read it over again so that I can see if anything has changed.

The book covers an array of moments in our lives. There is romance, heartbreak, and healing, among other things. Everyone can find something to relate to in this book.

The first page sets the tone for the stories that Rupi Kaur will tell.

how is it so easy for you

to be kind to people he said

milk and honey dripped

from my lips as i answered

cause people have not

been kind to me

"Milk and Honey" contains many more gems like this one. My favorites being the ones that emphasize the strength of women. Nothing is better than an empowering poem to make you feel great even on your worst days. This book is so great though because even if empowering, feminist poems don't appeal to you, maybe another one will. You never know if you're going to turn the page and find a poem that speaks to you.

If you are looking for something to do on your days stuck inside because of the snow, I suggest buying "Milk and Honey." It opened my eyes to a whole different side of poetry and helped my mind get back into its usual creative state of mind. Thanks to Rupi Kaur, I will be buying many more books of poetry and prose like this one.




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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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