“The Sun and Her Flowers” by Rupi Kaur • Book Review
Published: 23 October 2018 by Andrews McMeel Publishing
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages, English
“why is it
that when the story ends
we begin to feel all of it”
★★★★ (4 / 5 stars) This is a beautiful collection of poetry. Part of what struck me is the raw honesty and difficult topics that are so akin to the poetry my friends and I wrote in college, I was immediately taken aback. They're little love notes and scraps of memory left on the pavement for us to find and cherish and tape together, hoping the patchwork lives up to the real thing.
Rupi Kaur’s work may be overhyped—some reviewers claiming ‘every human on Earth needs to read it’—but I felt something like this: 25% I absolutely LOVED and made not of pages I wanted to digest again and again; 45% I liked because it felt familiar, relatable, and honest in a way I wouldn’t have thought of and often accompanied by striking illustrations; 30% felt too familiar and nearly unnecessary, particularly short stanzas taking up a whole page but not adding much value to my reading experience.
hype and heartbreak.
Kaur as a poet receives hype and accolades for many reasons: her relatable perspective, her honest narrative on timely issues, her accompanying illustrations...But one underrated aspect of this collection, the sun and her flowers, that deserves more appreciation is: the structure.
This collection's organization is beautiful. Not only do we feel a distinct difference in content and tone from segment to segment, but also we have a poem that specifically lays out the origins of these steps toward “blooming.” Kaur cites her mother in a poem: "think of those flowers you plant / in the garden each year / they will teach you / that people too / wilt / fall / root / rise / in order to bloom." These 5 stages brought to life in this collection are:
i. wilting
Theme: heartbreak. Distraught over the end of a brutal, life-sucking relationship, Kaur paints the picture of her wilting soul in these poems. Here, we get the essence of what makes Kaur's poetry so relatable and resonating with so many out there.
ii. falling
Theme: coping. With trauma, with loss, with disappointment, the "falling" section captures moments on the way to rock bottom—and dealing with the consequences once she hits it. These poems pick up in energy and increasingly get specific with heart-wrenching scenes you know are not imaginary.
iii. rooting
Theme: race and culture. In what feels like the peak of the collection, Kaur establishes her roots in her heritage—her parents' immigration story, her American experience, and all the conflicting expectations that came along with them. This is the start of her identity, however mangled, and her foundation for growth.
iv. rising
Theme: fresh romance. With roots settled in, "rising" brings us a fresh romance with all the nerves and joy you'd expect from a new relationship. From butterflies to head-over-heels emotions to leaving baggage behind, this section breathes life back into Kaur's poetry.
v. blooming
Theme: self-love. Our final step in healing is a fun tribute to women empowerment, self-care, self-love, and everything we wish we did for ourselves when we're hurting. While feel-good pages aren't my favorite, Kaur does well speaking her truth in a way I still connect with.
Woven throughout the sections with a clear tie-in with the title and her ending pages, this is a marvelous structure that gives the collection a foundation to root in, her poems and illustrations blooming into small buds and wildflowers.
truth and marshmallows.
my favorites.
54
64
68-73
90
92
126
132
144-145
163
213
231
for those of you following along.
The longer poems (68-73, 144-145) generally struck me more. When poems are short, each word needs to matter immensely more. It has to hold so much power that any additional word would have deteriorated from the message, the image, the emotion. This is not what I felt Kaur’s short poems did for me. They were thoughtful notes to the reader, mantras of self-love to absorb, and quick patches over spouts of trauma hoping to leak through. But the power did not lie in the two- and three-liners.
In fact, her most powerful poems came from her “rooting” section. As I mentioned, these poems focus primarily on her experience with racial discrimination, her mother’s immigration, and the influence of her cultural history on her American upbringing. A much greater percentage of these held entire scenes and stories in their words, which brought much rawer emotions and clearer images to me as a reader. These also presented some of the hardest truths to bear (striding alongside her verses on rape and abuse), which I have a personal affinity for in poetry. To me, it’s much easier to evoke a strong negative emotion with a poem than a strong positive one. “Happy” poetry often feels more like marshmallows on the top of my hot chocolate. They’re fluffy and pleasant, but they’re not what I’m cupping the steaming mug for.
final thoughts.
I really enjoyed this collection; each section is extremely relatable and covers timely issues most young women can connect with. Kaur's voice is distinct and special, and I look forward to following more of her journey and reading more from her in the future. I also hope this paves the way for more poetry, more women of color, and more change-makers to add to our narrative today. If you have any recommendations for similar writing styles or stories, please share!