The sun and her flowers by Rupi Kaur

Emer Handly

Credit: Emer Handly

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