i cannot get enough of rupi kaur’s poetry. her initial collection, milk and honey, is incredible, and i snatched up her second publication, the sun and her flowers, as soon as it came out. her writing is raw and honest and relatable, and i devoured the collection over five nights in july. below are some of my favorites.

wilting.

you left / and i wanted you still / yet i deserved someone / who was willing to stay [17]

it wasn’t what we left behind / that breaks me / it’s what we could’ve built / had we stayed [21]

love does not look like a person / love is our actions / love is giving all we can / even if it’s just the bigger slice of cake / love is understanding / we have the power to hurt one another / but we are going to do everything in our power / to make sure we don’t / love is figuring out all the kind sweetness we deserve / and when someone shows up / saying they will provide it as you do / but their actions seem to break you / rather than build you / love is knowing whom to choose [32-3]

you cannot / walk in and out of me / like a revolving door / i have too many miracles / happening inside me / to be your convenient option // – not your hobby [34]

i think my body knew you would not stay [38]

i long / for you / but you long / for someone else / i deny the one / who wants me / cause i want someone else // – the human condition [39]

falling.

you are waiting for someone / who is not coming back / meaning / you are living your life / hoping that someone will realize / they can’t live theirs without you // – realizations don’t work like that [62]

you do not just wake up and become the butterfly // – growth is a process [87]

wish pure love and soft peace / upon the ones / who’ve been unkind to you / and keep moving forward // – this will free you both [100]

what is stronger / than the human heart / which shatters over and over / and still lives [109]

you have so much / but are always hungry for more / stop looking up at everything you don’t have / and look around at everything you do // – where the satisfaction lives [111]

you can imitate a light like mine / but you cannot become it [112]

this is the recipe of life / said my mother / as she held me in her arms as i wept / think of those flowers you plant / in the garden each year / they will teach you / that people too / must wilt / fall / root / rise / in order to bloom [114]

rooting.

when it came to listening / my mother taught me silence / if you are drowning their voice with yours / how will you hear them she asked // when it came to speaking / she said do it with commitment / every word you say / is your own responsibility // when it came to being / she said be tender and tough at once / you need to be vulnerable to live fully / but rough enough to survive it all // when it came to choosing / she asked me to be thankful / for the choices i had that / she never had the privilege of making // – lessons from mumma [122]

borders / are man-made / they only divide us physically / don’t let them make us / turn on each other // – we are not enemies [128]

remember the body / of your community / breathe in the people / who sewed you whole / it is you who became yourself / but those before you / are a part of your fabric // – honor your roots [146]

so instead i ended up with pages and pages / full of words followed by commas and / more words and more commas / only to realize there are some things / in the word so infinite / they could never use a full stop [150-1]

rising.

when you start loving someone new / you laugh at the indecisiveness of love / remember when you were sure / the last one was the one / and now here you are / redefining the one all over again // – a fresh love is a gift [162]

the right one does not / stand in your way / they make space for you / to step forward [182]

blooming.

i will no longer / compare my path to others // – i refuse to do a disservice to my life [200]

as a father of three daughters / it would have been normal / for him to push marriage on us / this has been the narrative for / the women in my culture for hundreds of years / instead he pushed education / knowing it would set us free / in a world that wanted to contain us / he made sure that we learned / to walk independently [204]

to hate / is an easy lazy thing / but to love / takes strength / everyone has / but not all are / willing to practice [207]

i stand / on the sacrifices / of a million women before me / thinking / what can i do / to make this mountain taller / so the women after me / can see farther // – legacy [213]

you want to keep / the blood and the milk hidden / as if the womb and breast / never fed you [223]

their concept of beauty / is manufactured / i am not // – human [225]

how much / or how little / clothing she has on / has nothing to do with how free she is // – covered … uncovered [230]

there are mountains growing / beneath our feet / that cannot be contained / all we’ve endured / has prepared us for this / bring your hammers and fists / we have a glass ceiling to shatter // – let’s leave this place roofless [231]

what is the greatest lesson a woman should learn // that since day one / she’s already had everything she needs within herself / it’s the world that convinced her she did not [233]

representation / is vital / otherwise the butterfly / surrounded by a group of moths / unable to see itself / will keep trying to become the moth // – representation [239]

take the compliment / do not shy away from / another thing that belongs to you [240]

our work should equip / the next generation of women / to outdo us in every field / this is the legacy we’ll leave behind // – progress [241]

the road to changing the world / is never-ending // – pace yourself [242]

if you have never / stood with the oppressed / there is still time // – lift them [246]

there is / nothing left / to worry about / the sun and her flowers are here [248]

which was your favorite?

xx