Milk and Honey (and tears)

After pining for this book for what feels like forever, much to my delight, I received it for my birthday.
I have followed Kaur's posts on Pinterest and marvelled at their poignant artistry but I was unprepared for the book.
Its raw, explicit beauty and the craft at which she constructs such fiercely excruciating poems left me reading it with tears down my face.

The blurb reads:
"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"

She has poured what feels like every ounce of herself and her story into something so beautiful yet horrific, some of which will make you squirm with discomfort others, that will fill your heart with power and fire.

Along with most poems are illustrations drawn by her which are equally heart rendering.

I urge you to read this book, the digital versions are good but, with the book, you feel you are holding the delicacy of her whole life in the sheets of paper.

As a taster,  here are two of my favourites:

"i do not want to have you
to fill the empty parts of me
i want to be full on my own
i want to be so complete
i could light a whole city
and then
i want to have you
cause the two of us combined
could set it on fire"

"i want to apologise to all the women
i have called pretty
before i've called them intelligent or brave
i am sorry i made it sound as though
something as simple as what you are born with
is the most you have to be proud of when your
spirit has crushed mountains
from now on i will say things like
you are resilient or you are extraordinary 
not because i don't think you are pretty
but because you are so much more than that"

Check out Rupi Kaur's website here