“Milk and Honey” is a poetry book about different types of feelings of love, pain, and other things that girls go through as they grow up. It is specifically about the different things that the author experienced throughout her life.
Originally from India, “Milk and Honey” author Rupi Kaur immigrated to Canada at a very young age. Kaur went through a lot of things while growing up and journaled about them late at night, turning her thoughts in her journal into poems. Eventually, Kaur shared her poems with the world and her thoughts became famous and inspirations to many people, including myself.
“Milk and Honey” is a poetry book split up into four different parts. Each part is about the things most girls go through and the way that they love. The first part is “the hurting”, “the loving”, “the breaking”, and “the healing.” Kaur used her personal experiences in these different sections. Kaur wrote about her experiences to show girls that it’s okay to feel the way that they do after boys have hurt them.
“The Hurting” mainly focuses on the experience of pain, especially concerning the interpersonal relationships between a man and a woman. It talks about how different men throughout a woman’s life can all hurt her the same just in different ways. Most of her poems in this part of the book were when she was growing up and the hurt from her past.
“The Loving” is about Kaur (or any girl) being older and letting go of her past. Kaur learned that she can give the man she loves a chance. Kaur would also learn how to change her relationships with men.
“The Breaking” is about the themes of love, loss, healing, etc. It can be about the ending of a relationship or different experiences. It is about the first and the rough parts of the healing stage.
“The Healing” part of the book talks about how healing from trauma and hurt is not easy and it takes time. It’s okay to not forgive for a very long time. It talks about how even if it takes a long time to get to heal, you will eventually get there.
I am currently reading this book for the third time, and every single time I notice something different about it. It feels deeper every time I read it. Personally, this book has helped me in so many different ways. My friend got it for me when I was in the healing stage a few months after the hurting stage. I am now in “The Loving” part and it still helps me to this day. I would recommend this book to any girl who is over the age of fourteen.