“ you treat them as if / they have a heart like yours / but not everyone can be / as soft and tender as you / you don’t see / the person they are / you see the person they have the potential to be / you give and give till / they have taken everything / out of you and leave / you empty.” Milk and Honey is a book about how to deal with and cope with the world. Rupi Kaur is honest and shares her pain and growth within her work.

Rupi Kaur is an immigrant from India and spent her time learning the language and falling in love with it. Since then, she has been crafting her words in a way that has you falling in love with the language. Her first book, Milk and Honey, is the poems that she has toured around Canada with. The book mainly includes poems about her, her culture, her family, and past relationships. The unique thing about this book is the fact that it is split into sections; the hurting, the loving, the breaking, and the healing.


The hurting goes into what shaped her a a person through her pain, love, breaking, and healing. The hurting tends to go into her issues with her father and through abuse. The love was loving of herself and of her significant other. The hurt was when they left and how to deal with it. Finally, the healing was the accepting of what happened and to move on with her life.

The hurting really hits a strong point when reading. Rupi shares about her dating, rape, abuse, and father issues. For example, “you / have been / taught your legs / are a pit stop for men / that need a place to rest / a vacant body empty enough / for guests but no one / ever comes and is / willing to / stay.” Her work is something to admire because it goes against what people have been taught and is a strong role model to girls, but is also a role model for the lost. She shows you that even though this has happened, you can grow.

The process of this book took years to craft, perfect, and to reach your hands. Rupi has left her heart and soul within these pages. “ 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.” The truth is written all over her pages and passes along advice to people who read this. All of Rupi Kaur’s poems have true meaning behind them and are able to show people that they can heal and grow from what has hurt them in the past. Also, Rupi Kaur makes the worst of things sound beautiful and can create the best out of the worst. To not read this book is to miss out on something that will most definitely change the way you perceive the things around you. This book is so honest and raw, there is no way reading this book will not change your life. You can pick this book up at a Barnes and Nobles near you.