Rupi Kaur: Poetry

One of my favorite poets is Rupi Kaur. She is the author of the best selling book of prose, Milk and Honey which was released in 2014. Her second book The Sun and Her Flowers was released in 2017.

One of my favorite poems by Kaur is as follows:

The focus on beauty in this day and age is astounding. I remember when I first read this poem, and I just sat there and felt so many emotions – anger, guilt, and sadness. Out of all the compliments in the world, why is it that so many women strive to hear the word pretty or beautiful? I am guilty of this as well.

Every time I go home for a holiday, I hope that my family who hasn’t seen me in a while compliments me. I put extra effort into my appearance. Every time a new semester starts, I wake up early in the morning in order to do my hair and makeup and make sure I look primed and prepped. This is so pointless because I know that the next week, I’ll be back to my normal no makeup, hair up, t-shirt and jeans look. Why do I put so much effort into my appearance to go to class where the only thing that should count is my interest and intellect in the subject area.

Since reading this poem, I have made it a goal to make sure when I compliment a friend, I compliment them on something that matters. Of course I’ll still throw in a “you look great today” or a “your hair looks great” but I try to acknowledge the things that they aren’t necessarily expecting. I congratulate them for doing well on a test, or even just getting up in the morning and making it through their day of classes and work. There are so many things that are so much more important than appearance. It’s time that we start acknowledging those things and building up our fellow females by noticing the things that matter such as their energies and their capabilities.