Is Rupi Kaur’s the sun and her flowers just as important as milk and honey?

Rupi Kaur, the number one New York Times bestselling author of milk and honey, has recently published her second poetry book, the sun and her flowers and it’s very inspiring.

Rupi Kaur is a very talented poet who manages to relate to both teenagers and adults. When Rupi Kaur published her first book, milk and honey, in 2014, I was obsessed. Rupi Kaur made her poetry very relatable and inspiring. She talks about situations and problems that we all have been through or perhaps are currently going through. So when she announced that she had another poetry book in the works, I was very excited.

The sun and her flowers is a stunning poetry book. Published on October 3, 2017, the book is an internal exploration that deals with self growth and healing. Being able to write poetry and relate it to major issues that people go through isn’t always easy but Rupi Kaur has managed yet again to pull it off. The overall theme of the book is managing to get over the past and realizing that things will get worse before they start to get better. Sometimes it takes a while for people to fully heal themselves and come to terms with what has happened before they realize that things will get better. When people avoid healing they end up getting worse and at times end up breaking. Sometimes when bad things happen to us, we have to take the negative things and make them impactful and positive.

what is it with you and the sunflowers he asks

i point to the field of yellow outside
sunflowers worship the sun i tell him
only when it arrives do they rise
when the sun leaves
they bow their heads in mourning
that is what the sun does to those flowers
it’s what you do to me  

-the sun and her flowers

This poem explains the meaning of the book’s title. Kaur personifies the sun as a very heroic and admirable figure who is clearly adored and loved by the flowers. She relates the male figure as the sun and herself as the flowers. By adding personification, it shows you how much love the flowers have for the sun and how they react towards the sun. The drawing that accompanies this poem helps to visualize both the title and poem. The drawing is of the sun shining onto the flowers and it’s a very simple sketch, as are most of her illustrations. When using basic illustrations, it allows us as readers to imagine how it would really look and what colours would be used. It teaches us that it’s not always about how something looks, it’s about how we as readers can figure out the meaning and significance behind it. The sun and her flowers is divided into 5 different chapters using the flower-related titles, “wilting,” “falling,” “rooting,” “rising” and “blooming.” All of the poems are accompanied by a drawing by Rupi Kaur herself.

The design of the book is overall both gorgeous and simple. The front and the back of the book both have an illustration of two flowers and their foliage. The book’s flower motif is an interesting one. When flowers aren’t watered or don’t receive enough of the necessary nutrients, they begin to wilt. In relation to humans, when we can’t move on from past experiences, we too begin to fall and wilt. “People too,” Kaur writes in a poem on the back cover, “must wilt / fall / root / rise / in order to bloom.” For humans when bad things happen we begin to fill ourselves with sorrow. Once we fill ourselves with sorrow we begin to slowly drift farther away from who we are. In order to get back to our normal selves, we must find our roots and find out who we really are. Once we find out who we really are, we eventually move past the problem and make a solution.

Both of Rupi Kaurs books have helped me through a lot over the years with finding out who I really am and building back confidence. I’ve read both milk and honey and the sun and her flowers more than five times and I’m proud to say that I haven’t gotten tired of either. The amount of love and dedication that Rupi Kaur has for the two books is evident. Kaur explains how important it is for us to love ourselves no matter what and that whenever something bad happens, we have to move on from it. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next. I recommend this book for both adults and teenagers. If you are interested in poetry that’s both relatable and deals with things that most people in society has been through, then I highly recommend Rupi Kaur’s the sun and her flowers.

the sun and her flowers
By Rupi Kaur
5 out of 5 stars