the sun and her flowers

Read Yes
Length 256
Quick Review A collection of poetry that is both deeply emotional and eerily undemanding.

Rupi Kaur is an Indian-Canadian poet, who rose in fame through Instagram. After self-publishing her debut collection milk and honey with extraordinary success, her book was picked up by Andrews McMeel Publishing. Two years after Milk and Honey, her second and much awaited for collection the sun and her flowers was published on October 3, 2017.

As a student of literature, I have spent an exorbitant amount of time reading poetry for both pleasure and scholarly necessity. Through much practice and discussion, I have been able to unlock the difficult language of poetry. Reading it is an exercise in patience and detection. Poetry is often inaccessible.

I have not read Kaur’s milk and honey… yet. I picked up the sun and her flowers a bit hesitant because I have stayed away from poetry for awhile. The two adjectives I would describe this book with are: deep and accessible. I have never read poetry quite so accessible. It is no wonder she has met with such resounding success. Kaur is creating a generation who can appreciate poetry for what it is: beautiful.

Thematically, the sun and her flowers span issues of heartache to sexual assault to masturbation to death to immigration to beauty to infanticide and more. It is safe to say, there are few emotional heart strings Kaur does not strum. As a woman, it is impossible to read her work without feeling a kindred spirit. You can find my favorite poems on pages 65, 91, 173, 220, and 224. Although I love them all, these were some of the most powerful for me.

Kaur’s work ranges from a few lines to several pages. Usually each poem is accompanied by an illustration Kaur drew herself. Though they are simple drawings, emotion is deeply evident. Kaur’s writing style is unique. She was born in India, but she grew up in Canada. Her poems do not utilize capitalization or punctuation outside of the period. This is out of respect to her cultural and linguistic heritage; the Gurmukhi script only has one case and one punctuation mark. Kaur has mentioned she enjoys writing in this style because it indicates an equality between letters, which is non-existent in the English language.

I could not recommend her work more. It is beautifully rich in issues, emotions, and thought provoking sentiments.

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Memorable Quotes
“you’re everywhere, except right here”
“from head to foot i am layered in dust”
“it takes a broken person to come searching, for meaning between my legs, it takes a complete. whole. perfectly designed person to survive”
“i am willing to pay any price, for a beauty that makes heads turn”
“how can i verbalize consent as an adult if i was never taught to as a child”
“if i just learn to act like a lady”
“i have survived far too much to go quietly”
“my twenties are the warm-up, for what i’m really about to do”

Title: The Sun and Her Flowers
Author: Rupi Kaur
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Copyright: 2017
ISBN: 9781449486792