"The Sun and Her Flowers"

“The Sun and Her Flowers”

Written by Rupi Kaur

Review written by Diana Iozzia

“The Sun and Her Flowers” is the sophomore poetry collection written by ultra-famous, bestselling modern poet, Rupi Kaur. A few days prior to reading her second book, I read her first, enjoying it. It was not my favorite poetry that I had ever read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed the blend of heartbreak and love in that collection. There were many types of love and how it could go wrong. I felt that she had a very acute but accurate view of the world. With her second collection, I enjoyed it less.

I believe that I enjoyed “The Sun and Her Flowers” less, because the poetry was about more than the first. Her second involved themes of women empowerment and politics, which unfortunately is not a type of poetry that I enjoy reading about. I don’t mind reading serious poetry. Most of her poetry in “Milk and Honey” was very serious. However, I just don’t like reading poetry about much more depressing topics. I felt the first had a good sampling of both, but this book felt more saddening. This led to my disinterest and disappointment with this collection. I do understand that some readers may enjoy the book more because of the newer focuses, and I understand that poetry is very subjective.

I read this in an e-book form, so the pages were very jumbled and it was hard to determine which poem was on each page. Many of Kaur’s poems do not have titles, so I can’t list the untitled ones that I enjoyed, because I’m not sure if the page number is correct. In light of that, I am sharing with you the titled poems that I enjoyed. Kaur’s poetry collections are separated into sections. The sections in this collection are: “Wilting”, “Falling”, “Rooting”, “Rising”, “Blooming”. The poems with an asterisk next to it are favorites.

“The Construction Site of Our Future” *

“The Mornings Without You” *

“Hunger”

“Not Your Hobby”

“The Human Condition”

“Ghosts”

“I Don’t Need More Friends”

“Depression is a Shadow Living Inside Me”

“The Underrated Heartache” *

“Green and Blue” *

“Rest in Peace” *

“Boat” *

“What If”

“The New World Had Drained Him” *

“Forward” *

“A Fresh Love is a Gift” *

“Celebration” *

“If Only We Met When I Was That Willing”

“Checklist”

“The Sun and Her Flowers”

“Fingers”

“Sex”

“Commitment” *

“The Chase” * (My favorite from the whole book!)

“Funeral”

“Medicine”

In conclusion, I still enjoyed many poems from this collection. I absolutely recommend reading both her books. I would happily read future collections written by Rupi Kaur.