Recently I picked up a wonderful book of poems from an unexpected place. Walmart, sure they have the one book isle of manga, cookbooks, novels, etc. but they are never very interesting. A couple weeks ago I saw a book titled Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. This book was sitting alone, and misplaced. I picked up the book thinking it had an interesting solid black matte cover with a bee and the title. The cover was smooth and soft as the book was untouched. I just read the first couple of poems from page one. I didn’t expect to find a piece in there that jerked my heart strings. I’ll include the piece at the end. This book includes many poems of different meanings, but I have not read them all so I’m speaking on what I know. It contained poetry to cater towards woman, and the serious female struggles in life from the huge issues to the smaller ones. There is a trigger warning if you decide to purchase this book. It discusses serious sexual issues among women. It also includes family struggles, significant other struggles. Here is the poem that got me to purchase this book.
“father. you always call to say nothing in particular. you ask what i’m doing or where i am and when the silence stretches like a lifetime between us i scramble to find questions to keep the conversation going. what i long to say most is. i understand this world broke you. it has been so hard on your feet. i don’t blame you for not knowing how to remain soft with me. sometimes i stay up thinking of all the places you are hurting which you’ll never care to mention. i come from the same aching blood. from the same bone so desperate for attention i collapse in on myself. i am your daughter. i know the small talk is the only way you know how to tell me you love me. cause it is the only way I know how to tell you.”
I loved this poem, because of my personal experience with my father. It really spoke to me, and I feel a lot of the poems throughout this book could speak to many more people as well. It speaks on many problematic things in this world. By spreading the word of this book, I hope for more people to see Rupi Kaur’s poems. I feel it could be an eye-opening thing for some people to hear. Also, it can make people who struggle with those things feel like they aren’t alone or bring awareness to people who haven’t. I know the wording throughout this isn’t very clear in certain sentences. It’s because I either cannot mention what’s in the book or its a suggestive topic for some people. 
-Rupi Kaur
I really like that you give us a setting and background information on how you found the book. I also really enjoyed the fact that you related to this book personally, because it puts the reader more in touch with your reasoning for buying and recommending it. Great Job Ava!
I absolutely loved the strong imagery you used in the beginning of your post. Reading it made me feel like I had the book in front of me as you described each detail of the cover and where on the bookshelf it was.
i used to be a big fan of rupi!! really proves that quantity doesn’t equal quality. (this is the excuse i use when i write my tiny little poems)