“Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur

When my husband Jeff and I got married in 2016, we decided that he would keep his house in Marin and I would keep my apartment in the city. We would spend time together, and time apart. This might seem unorthodox but with four girls between us, it made perfect sense to us. At his house in Marin I get to observe the habits of his almost-18-year old daughter, Violet. There is a red chair wing backed chair that I call “Violet’s chair” because that is the officially designated spot where she places all of her schoolbooks, clothing, keys and shoes. This is the chair that Jeff’s mother, Sue, spent hours in knitting, doing cross-stitch and reading. Like her grandmother, Violet loves to read. One day I saw on the red chair this book: “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur. I made a note to investigate the book further, but the following day the book was gone. So I ordered another copy from my library and read it in my apartment one quiet afternoon when I was on my own. “Milk and Honey” is a cross between a poetry book and a picture book. It is broken down into four sections, “The Hurting,” “The Loving,” “The Breaking,” and finally “The Healing.”  Nearly every poem is accompanied by a thoughtful, poignant, almost dreamy illustration. The poems are about loss, love, pain and ultimately survival. The author’s website says it also is about “femininity,” but I wouldn’t classify this book as gender specific. It is about human beings struggling to find peace in a world filled with violence and pain, as well as intimacy and love. Kaur is a Toronto, Canada-based writer and artist. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.