"and may we always stay grounded, rooted. our feet planted firmly onto the earth." ( )

what terrifies me most is how we
foam at the mouth with envy
when other succeed
but sigh in relief
when they are failing

our struggle to
celebrate each other is
what's proven most difficult
in being human

( )

Too fragmented for me to enjoy. I don't mind tumblr style poetry but this was just a mess. Not sure why it's been so popular, there's better poets out there. ( )

I didn't read any reviews prior to reading this book and I'm so glad I'm not the only one who is underwhelmed. That is all. ( )

This whole book talks about some pretty big topics but I think the author did it in a really good way. The poems were quick and easy to read while also being full of heavy material. It was interesting to read such a short book while also feeling like it was really long. I'm looking forward to reading her other work! ( )

I thought this would be so much better. While I really liked the third of the poems, the other two thirds were either nonsense or I could not relate. That's understandable given that the author is from a different culture. ( )

This book is on the list of 13 books recently banned in Utah schools. It is a collection of poems by poet Rupi Kaur born in India and now from Canada. Her poems deal with sexual abuse, healing, feminism, sexuality, and lover and is divided into sections entitled "the hurting", "the loving", "the breaking" and "the healing." Kupaur's poems are very short and simple - often reading more like aphorisms or koans - but they have a cumulative effect when read together. This is appropriately considered by many critics to be poetry for a social media age, which could be good or bad depending on your perspective.

Favorite Passages:

“how is it so easy for you
to be kind to people he asked

milk and honey dripped
from my lips as i answered

cause people have not
been kind to me"”

"this is where you must
understand the difference
between want and need
you may want that boy
but you certainly
don't need him"

"who tricked you
into believing
another person
was meant to complete you
when the most they can do is complement"

“the next time he
points out the
hair on your legs is
growing back remind
that boy your body
is not his home
he is a guest
warn him to
never outstep
his welcome again”

"other women's bodies
are not our battlegrounds"

“your art
is not about how many people
like your work
your art
is about
if your heart likes your work
if your soul likes your work
it's about how honest
you are with yourself
and you
must never
trade honesty
for relatability”

( )

Good one liners do not make poetry. it’s inherently lazy and childish. if you like pretty sounding things that you and every ofher teenager or child could write, you’d love this! ( )

This is everything I want to be. ( )

Super powerful poetry. Kaur evokes so much emotion in such few text. Very impressive! ( )

176

While I appreciate someone sharing their feelings and life experiences, this was done in poor form. There were maybe two "poems" that actually made me feel something. Mostly it was these generic thoughts that the internet is full of. I didn’t see any need of printing them out.

That would still make me rate this “ok” but the reason I went one star is that I quite disliked the author’s attitude. There is this part where she is offended that her boyfriend tells her that she is better than other girls:

you tell me
i am not like most girls
and learn to kiss me with your eyes closed
something about the phrase—something about
how i have to be unlike the women
i call sisters in order to be wanted
makes me want to spit your tongue out
like i am supposed to be proud you picked me
as if i should be relieved you think
i am better than them

Well first, he told you that you are different, not better but ok...
But if you are so modest as to get offended by this innocent compliment, then what is this:

the woman who comes after me will be a bootleg version of who i am. she will try and write poems for you to erase the ones i’ve left memorized on your lips but her lines could never punch you in the stomach the way mine did. she will then try to make love to your body. but she will never lick, caress, or suck like me. she will be a sad replacement of the woman you let slip. nothing she does will excite you and this will break her. when she is tired of falling apart for a man that doesn’t give back what he takes she will recognize me in your eyelids staring at her with pity and it’ll hit her. how can she love a man who is busy loving someone he can never get his hands on again.

And this was not the only instance of her literary saying that she is better than the other girls… ( )

I have very conflicting feeling about this work as a whole. Some of the individual poems are very moving, and I read them several times and really took something from them. On the other hand, multiple ones felt very uninspired and empty, which is a harsh thing to say (especially given the subject matter) but I really felt like there could have been more thought to them.

One of my favorites was the one that began,"did you think I was a city / big enough for a weekend getaway / I am the town surrounding it / the one you've never heard of / but always pass through /..."

But on the page next to that piece, another poem simply reads,"you mustn't have to / make them want you / they must want you themselves"

Sure, this may be true, but I found it (almost annoying) sparse- and there are very many of these short poems in "milk and honey". There was so little substance to them individually.

Then here's my conflict: this is a collection. And, when read together, as almost a novel, these little poems combine to create a more forceful narrative as a WHOLE than they do INDIVIDUALLY. However, part of be just can't ignore the fact that I thought there was a lack of creativity and emotion in some of these poems. The ones I enjoyed I REALLY enjoyed, and vise versa. ( )

Simple, lovely poetry. ( )

Cold take, but this is almost unreadable at times. I'd give 1.5 stars instead of just 1 because some of the poems in here do legitimately have promise and merit, and I think Kaur could develop as a writer.

Keyword: could

A lot of the poems in this collection are almost blatantly copied from concepts scattered around the internet, and given that this was published in 2015 I have a difficult time believing that is a coincidence. Some of them feel so thoughtless and low-effort that it is embarrassing. The few poems that do have merit are unpolished, but I want to believe that there's a diamond in the rough here... somewhere. ( )

Poetically Beautiful


Sometimes you just need a change of pace. That is what Milk and honey was for me.

Divided into four chapters--the hurting, the loving, the breaking, the healing-- MILK AND HONEY (2015) is a provocative collection of poems meant to empower females. This work may be considered feminist but it is worth every minute you invest in it.

Like many of her critics, I question the literary or poetic merit of Kaur's craft: the traditional elements of poetry as we have been taught to recognize them (alliteration, rhyme, rhythm, simile, metaphor, personification etc.) aren't evident in many of her poems. Her line breaks are at times dubious. At their basic level, some of her poems seem to be renditions of familiar advice or platitudes. In a few cases, some of the poems seem repetitive. And yet, I can admit that her words are impactful, for the seemingly simple way she expresses her ideas resonate on a universal way. I have been writing poetry since I can remember it has always been a way of painting with words for me. This paints pain and healing so beautifully that you can finish this book in one sitting and take things away from it to take with you for a long time. I needed a break and this was a great one


( )

A book of feelings

I'm late to the Milk and Honey train, but finally am here. There are parts of this I've highlighted that I definitely could've used back in 2012, but others I appreciate long past a heartbreak.

A quick trip to wiki while writing this review notes that some of Kaur's work is very similar to other poets, so I'll dock a star even though I did really like the work. Wondering what this looks like on my GR feed given I'm writing this in the Kindle app (apologies if there's some star spam over my indecisive rating) ( )

This is a great collection of poems with themes such as love, trauma, healing, and femininity. ( )

I'm not a poetry person, and maybe it's my current frame of mind, but this book was amazing. The simplicity of the writing makes it very approachable, but don't mistake that for light reading. The heart (both whole and broken) in these poems really struck me, and at times gutted me. I'm looking forward to reading more from this woman. ( )

I devoured this in an hour and a half, and then I read it again slowly. I’ve never been particularly moved by poetry but this brought out thoughts and feelings that I wasn’t expecting. I’d definitely like to see more of Rupi Kaur’s work! ( )

I typically don’t read poetry. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I picked up a poetry book - possibly in University, about 15 years ago. But this book captured my interest and I ordered a copy, eager to try something new. Milk And Honey delivered what I expected: dozens of poems that were both heartfelt and raw, at once heartbreaking and thoroughly hopeful.

Kaur’s feminine experience is every woman’s experience; her heartache every woman’s heartache. Although we haven’t all had to deal with some of these issues (sexual violence, an absent father, etc.) we can all relate on some level to being marginalized, ignored, used.

I loved Kaur’s use of language, her lyrical and raw poetic style and the fact that she doesn’t shy away from difficult topics. Her doodles enhanced the poetry and added depth to the stories being told.

However, I have to admit that I expected… more. I found that some of the poems only scratched the surface of these deep and emotional topics, and a bunch were just… cliche. There were times I found Kaur overly self indulgent and self absorbed, which I suppose is par for the course when a poet is baring her soul, but it got a little tiresome after a while. ( )

-7 stars.

Absolutely egregious. Calling this poetry is straight up slander. ( )

Beautiful pieces! More aggressive then I would prefer. ( )

beautifully written words/quotes... BUT I wouldn't count this as poetry. ( )

B

r

o

k

e

n

sentences, are not
poetry

- e e cummings rolling in his grave

As with most modern poetry, this is not a collection of poems but rather a collection of tweets and fractured vignettes. I think if it had been marketed as experimental prose, it may not have received so much backlash from the poetry community. That said, I can appreciate that Rupi Kaur has captured the imaginations of many young readers, and has provided gateway books for new fans of poetry. I will give Kaur this; Her style is very approachable and recognizable. ( )