Rupi Kaur, the Instagram poet who has arguably changed modern poetry, has published more of her work in a collection called ‘the sun and her flowers’. It is, to put it simply, another literary masterpiece.
Kaur sticks to her main themes of love, heartbreak, relationships, abuse, racism, feminism, letting go, self-growth and self-love.
The writer has stepped this one up, splitting the book into five sections instead of four meaning more emotional page time for the reader.
‘wilting’ greets us with a heartbroken Kaur. Much like most of the poems in her first book, she talks about her experience in an abuse relationship;
‘i tried to leave many times but
as soon as I got away
my lungs buckled under the pressure
panting for air I’d return
perhaps this is why I let you
skin me to the bone
something
was better than nothing
having you touch me
even it was not kind
was better than not having your hands at all
i could take the abuse
i could not take the absence
i knew I was beating a dead thing
but it didn’t matter
if the thing was dead
when at the very least
i had it
– Addiction
‘falling’ is the chapter in which she deals with depression and the pain of a man leaving, but also knows she can recover from it.
‘when i hit the rock bottom
that exists after rock bottom
and no rope or hand appeared
i wondered
what if nothing wants me
because i do not want me
– i am both the poison and the antidote
‘rooting’ is slightly different to the other chapters. Here, she strays away from writing about heartbreak and focuses on appreciating her mother and her roots.
‘perhaps we are all immigrants
trading one home for another
first we leave the womb for air
then the suburbs for the filthy city
in search of a better life
some of us just happen to leave entire countries’
‘rising’ shows us a more positive side. She has found someone who is not toxic and is learning to let go of her past to move into her future.
‘the middle place is strange
the part between them and the next
is an awakening from how you saw to
how you will see
this is where their charm wears off
where they are no longer
the god you made them out to be
when the pedestal you carved out of your
bone and teeth no longer serves them
they are unmasked and made mortal again’
‘blooming’ is the final chapter in which we see Kaur embrace self-growth and self-love.
‘it was when i stopped searching for home within others
and lifted the foundations of home within myself
i found there were no roots more intimate
than those between a mind and body
that have decided to be whole’
‘the sun and her flowers’ is beautifully emotional, heart-breaking and tells the tales of becoming enough for yourself in a way that resonates with any reader.
Emer Handly