β
Loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
i am a museum full of art
but you had your eyes shut
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
do not look for healing
at the feet of those
who broke you
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
I didn't leave because
I stopped loving you,
I left because the longer
I stayed the less I loved myself.
β
β
Rupi Kaur
β
how you love yourself is
how you teach others
to love you
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
if you were born with the weakness to fall you were born with the strength to rise
β
β
Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey)
β
i want to apologize to all the women i have called beautiful
before iβve called them intelligent or brave
i am sorry i made it sound as though
something as simple as what youβre born with
is all you have to be proud of
when you have broken mountains with your wit
from now on i will say things like
you are resilient, or you are extraordinary
not because i donβt think youβre beautiful
but because i need you to know
you are more than that
β
β
Rupi Kaur
β
The kindest words my father said to me
Women like you drown oceans.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
i am water
soft enough
to offer life
tough enough
to drown it away
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
people go but how they left always stays
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
stay strong through your pain
grow flowers from it
you have helped me
grow flowers out of mine so
bloom beautifully
dangerously
loudly
bloom softly
however you need
just bloom
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
he placed his hands
on my mind
before reaching
for my waist
my hips
or my lips
he didn't call me
beautiful first
he called me
exquisite
- how he touches me
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
Our backs tell stories
no books have the spine to carry
β
β
Rupi Kaur
β
for you to see beauty here
does not mean
there is beauty in me
it means there is beauty rooted
so deep within you
you can't help but
see it everywhere
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
Every time you
tell your daughter
you yell at her
out of love
you teach her to confuse
anger with kindness
which seems like a good idea
till she grows up to
trust men who hurt her
cause they look so much
like you.
β
β
Rupi Kaur
β
what is stronger than the human heart which shatters over and over and still lives
β
β
Rupi Kaur
β
i do not want to have you
to fill the empty parts of me
i want to be full on my own
i want to feel so complete
i could light a whole city
and then
i want to have you
cause the two of
us combined
could set
it on fire
β
β
Rupi Kaur
β
you tell me to quiet down cause my opinions make me less beautiful but i was not made with a fire in my belly so i could be put out i was not made with a lightness on my tongue so i could be easy to swallow i was made heavy half blade and half silk difficult to forget and not easy for the mind to follow
β
β
Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey)
β
The thing about writing is I can't tell if it's healing or destroying.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
you might not have been my first love
but you were the love that made
all other loves seem
irrelevant
β
β
Rupi Kaur
β
why is it
that when the story ends
we begin to feel all of it
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
fall
in love
with your solitude
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
how is it so easy for you to be kind to people he asked milk and honey dripped from my lips as i answered cause people have not been kind to me
β
β
Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey)
β
the world gives you so much pain and here you are making gold out of it
- there is nothing purer than that
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
i am hopelessly
a lover and
a dreamer and
that will be the
death of me
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
your art
is not about how many people
like your work
your art
is about
if your heart likes your work
if your soul likes your work
it's about how honest
you are with yourself
and you
must never
trade honesty
for relatability
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
a lot of times
we are angry at other people
for not doing what
we should have done for ourselves
- responsibility
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
i have what i have and i am happy iβve lost what iβve lost and i am still happy - outlook
β
β
Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey)
β
when you are broken
and he has left you
do not question
whether you were
enough
the problem was
you were so enough
he was not able to carry it
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
most importantly love
like it's the only thing you know how
at the end of the day all this
means nothing
this page
where you're sitting
your degree
your job
the money
nothing even matters
except love and human connection
who you loved
and how deeply you loved them
how you touched the people around you
and how much you gave them
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
you cannot leave
and have me too
i cannot exist in
two places at once
-when you ask if we can still be friends
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
despite knowing
they wonβt be here for long
they still choose to live
their brightest lives
- sunflowers
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
my heart woke me crying last night
how can i help i begged
my heart said
write the book
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
You do not just wake up and become the butterfly"
-Growth is a process.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
i donβt know what living a balanced life feels like
when i am sad
i donβt cry i pour
when i am happy
i donβt smile i glow
when i am angry
i donβt yell i burn
the good thing about
feeling in extremes
is when i love
i give them wings
but perhaps
that isn't
such a good thing
cause they always
tend to leave and
you should see me
when my heart is broken
i don't grieve
i shatter
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
the very thought of you
has my legs spread apart
like an easel with a canvas
begging for art
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
it was when I stopped searching for home within others and lifted the foundations of home within myself I found there were no roots more intimate than those between a mind and body that have decided to be whole.
β
β
Rupi Kaur
β
i am not a hotel room. i am home
i am not the whiskey you want
i am the water you need
don't come here with expectations
and try to make a vacation out of me
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
it takes grace to remain kind in cruel situations
β
β
Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey)
β
you look at me and cry
everything hurts
i hold you and whisper
but everything can heal
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
and here you are living
despite it all
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
you left
and i wanted you still
yet i deserved someone
who was willing to stay
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
you must want to spend the rest of your life with yourself first
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
i stand
on the sacrifices
of a million women before me
thinking
what can i do
to make this mountain taller
so the women after me
can see farther
- legacy
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
she was a rose
in the hands of those
who had no intention
of keeping her
β
β
Rupi Kaur
β
nothing is safer
than the sound of you
reading out loud to me
-the perfect date
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
it isn't what we left behind
that breaks me
it's whatever we could've built
had we stayed
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
that is the thing about selfish people. they gamble entire beings. entire souls to please their own.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey)
β
love will come
and when love comes
love will hold you
love will call your name
and you will melt
sometimes though
love will hurt you but
love will never mean to
love will play no games
cause love knows life
has been hard enough already
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
If I'm not the love of your life
I'll be the greatest loss instead
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
what terrifies me most is how we
foam at the mouth with envy
when others succeed
but sigh in relief
when they are failing
our struggle to
celebrate each other is
what's proven most difficult
in being human
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
apparently it is ungraceful of me
to mention my period in public
cause the actual biology
of my body is too real
it is okay to sell what's
between a woman's legs
more than it is okay to
mention its inner workings
the recreational use of
this body is seen as
beautiful while
its nature is
seen as ugly
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
what am i to you he asks
i put my hands in his lap
and whisper you
are every hope
i've ever had
in human form
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
what is the greatest lesson a woman should learn
that since day one
she's already had everything she needs within herself
it's the world that convinced her she did not
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
i struggle so deeply
to understand
how someone can
pour their entire soul
blood and energy
into someone
without wanting
anything in
return
-i will have to wait till i'm a mother
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
do not bother holding onto
that thing that does not want you
-you cannot make it stay
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
we have been dying
since we got here
and forgot to enjoy the view
- live fully
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
your body
is a museum
of natural disasters
can you grasp how
stunning that is
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
you're everywhere
except right here
and it hurts
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
you are the faint line between faith and blindly waiting - letter to my future lover
β
β
Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey)
β
you were a dragon long before
he came around and said
you could fly
you will remain a dragon
long after he's left
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
trying to convince myself
i am allowed
to take up space
is like writing with
my left hand
when i was born
to use my right
-the idea shrinking is hereditary
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
there is a difference between someone telling you they love you and them actually loving you
β
β
Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey)
β
no
it won't
be love at
first sight when
we meet it'll be love
at first remembrance cause
i've seen you in my mother's eyes
when she tells me to marry the type
of man i'd want to raise my son to be like
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
people say things
meant to rip you in half
but you hold the power to not
turn their words into a knife
and cut yourself
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
when death
takes my hand
i will hold you with the other
and promise to find you
in every lifetime
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
donβt mistake
salt for sugar
if he wants to
be with you
he will
itβs that simple
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
Iβd be lying if I said
you make me speechless
the truth is you make my
tongue so weak it forgets
what language to speak in.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
the right one does not
stand in your way
they make space for you
to step forward
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
sometimes
the apology
never comes
when it is wanted
and when it comes
it is neither wanted
nor needed
-you are too late
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
i was music
but you had your ears cut off
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
never feel guilty for starting again
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
you ask
if we can still be friends
i explain how a honeybee
does not dream kissing
the mouth of a flower
and then settle for its leaves
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
you have sadness living in places sadness shouldnβt live
β
β
Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey)
β
i could be anything in the world but i wanted to be his
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
i am
made of water
of course i am emotional
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
Let it go, let it leave, let it happen. Nothing in this world was promised or belonged to you anyway.
β
β
Rupi Kaur
β
If I knew what safety looked like, I would have spent less time falling into arms that were not
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
i thank the universe
for taking
everything it has taken
and giving to me
everything it is giving
-balance
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
i always get myself into this mess.
i always let him tell me i am beautiful and half believe it. i always jump thinking he will catch me at the fall. i am hopelessly a lover, and a dreamer, and that will be the death of me
β
β
Rupi Kaur
β
this morning
I told the flowers
what I'd do for you
and they blossomed
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
isnβt it such a tragic thing. when you can see it so clearly but the other person doesnβt.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey)
β
I will no longer
compare my path to others
-I refuse to do a disservice to my life
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
the thing about having
an alcoholic parent
is an alcoholic parent
does not exist
simply
an alcoholic
who could not stay sober
long enough to raise their kids
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
the next time you
have your coffee black
you'll taste the bitter state he left you in
it will make you weep
but you'll never
stop drinking
you'd rather have the
darkest parts of him
than have nothing
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
i have survived far too much to go quietly
let a meteor take me
call the thunder for backup
my death will be grand
the land will crack
the sun will eat itself
- the day I leave
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
To be soft is to be powerful
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
my favorite thing about you is your smell
you smell like
earth
herbs
gardens
a little more
human than the rest of us
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
youβve touched me
without even
touching me.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
the next time he
points out the
hair on your legs is
growing back remind
that boy your body
is not his home
he is a guest
warn him to
never outstep
his welcome again
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
what i miss most is how you loved me. but what i didn't know was how you loved me had so much to do with the person i was. it was a reflection of everything i gave you. coming back to me. how did i not see that. how. did i sit here soaking in the idea that no one else would love me that way. when it was i that taught you. when it was i that showed you how to fill. the way i needed to be filled. how cruel i was to myself. giving you credit for my warmth simply because you had felt it. thinking it was you who gave me strength. wit. beauty. simply because you recognized it. as if i was already not these things before i met you. as if i did not remain all these things after you left.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
i am sending my love to your eyes. may they always see goodness in people. and may you always practice kindness. may we see each other as one. may we be nothing short of in love with everything the universe has to offer. and may we always stay grounded. rooted. our feet planted firmly onto the earth.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (Milk and Honey)
β
i don't blame you for not knowing how to remain soft with me. sometimes i stay up thinking of all the places you are hurting which you'll never care to mention. i come from the same aching blood. from the same bone so desperate for attention i collapse in on myself. i am your daughter. i know the small talk is the only way you know how to tell me you love me. cause it is the only way i know how to tell you.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
you look just like your mother
i guess i do carry her tenderness well
you both have the same eyes
cause we are both exhausted
and the hands
we share the same wilting fingers
but that rage your mother doesn't wear that rage
you're right
this rage is the one thing
i get from my father
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
if he can't help but
degrade other women
when they're not looking
if toxicity is central to his language
he could hold you
in his lap and be soft
honey
that man could feed you sugar and
douse you in rose water
but that still could not
make him sweet
-if you want to know what the type of man he is
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
i hardened under the last loss. it took something human out of me. i used to be so deeply emotional iβd crumble on demand. but now the water has made its exit. of course i care about the ones around me. iβm just struggling to show it. a wall is getting in the way. i used to dream of being so strong nothing could shake me. now. i am. so strong. that nothing shakes me. and all i dream is to soften.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)
β
that is the thing about selfish people. they
gamble entire beings. entire souls to please their own. one second they are holding you like the world in their lap and the next they have belittled you to a mere picture. a moment. something of the past. one second. they swallow you up and whisper they want to spend the rest of their life with you. but the moment they sense fear. they are already halfway out the door. without having the nerve to let you go with grace. as if the human heart means that little to them.
and after all this. after all of the taking. the nerve. isn't it sad and funny how people have more guts these days to undress you with their fingers than they do pick up the phone and call. apologize. for the loss. and this is how you lose her.
- selfish
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
did you think i was a city
big enough for a weekend getaway
i am the town surrounding it
the one you've never heard of
but always pass through
there are no neon lights here
no skyscapers or statues
but there is thunder
for i make bridges tremble
i am not street meat i am homemade jam
thick enough to cut the sweetest
thing you lips will touch
i am not police sirens
i am the crackle of a fireplace
i'd burn you and you still
couldn't take your eyes off of me
cause i'd look so beautiful doing it
you'd blush
i am not a hotel room i am home
i am not the whiskey you want
i am the water you need
don't come here with expectations
and try to make a vacation out of me
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
i will tell you about selfish people. even when they know they will hurt you they walk into your life to taste you because you are the type of being they donβt want to miss out on. you are too much shine to not be felt. so when they have gotten a good look at everything you have to offer. when they have taken your skin your hair and your secrets with them. when they realize how real this is. how much of a storm you are and it hits them.
that is when the cowardice sets in. that is when the person you thought they were is replaced by the sad reality of what they are. that is when they lose every fighting bone in their body and leave after saying you will find better than me.
you will stand there naked with half of them still hidden somewhere inside you and sob. asking them why they did it. why they forced you to love them when they had no intention of loving you back and theyβll say something along the lines of i just had to try. i had to give it a chance. it was you after all.
but that isnβt romantic. it isnβt sweet. the idea that they were so engulfed by your existence they had to risk breaking it for the sake of knowing they werenβt the one missing out. your existence meant that little next to their curiosity of you.
β
β
Rupi Kaur (milk and honey)
β
what love looks like
what does love look like the therapist asks
one week after the breakup
and iβm not sure how to answer her question
except for the fact that i thought love
looked so much like you
thatβs when it hit me
and i realized how naive i had been
to place an idea so beautiful on the image of a person
as if anybody on this entire earth
could encompass all love represented
as if this emotion seven billion people tremble for
would look like a five foot eleven
medium-sized brown-skinned guy
who likes eating frozen pizza for breakfast
what does love look like the therapist asks again
this time interrupting my thoughts midsentence
and at this point iβm about to get up
and walk right out the door
except i paid too much money for this hour
so instead i take a piercing look at her
the way you look at someone
when youβre about to hand it to them
lips pursed tightly preparing to launch into conversation
eyes digging deeply into theirs
searching for all the weak spots
they have hidden somewhere
hair being tucked behind the ears
as if you have to physically prepare for a conversation
on the philosophies or rather disappointments
of what love looks like
well i tell her
i donβt think love is him anymore
if love was him
he would be here wouldnβt he
if he was the one for me
wouldnβt he be the one sitting across from me
if love was him it would have been simple
i donβt think love is him anymore i repeat
i think love never was
i think i just wanted something
was ready to give myself to something
i believed was bigger than myself
and when i saw someone
who probably fit the part
i made it very much my intention
to make him my counterpart
and i lost myself to him
he took and he took
wrapped me in the word special
until i was so convinced he had eyes only to see me
hands only to feel me
a body only to be with me
oh how he emptied me
how does that make you feel
interrupts the therapist
well i said
it kind of makes me feel like shit
maybe weβre looking at it wrong
we think itβs something to search for out there
something meant to crash into us
on our way out of an elevator
or slip into our chair at a cafe somewhere
appear at the end of an aisle at the bookstore
looking the right amount of sexy and intellectual
but i think love starts here
everything else is just desire and projection
of all our wants needs and fantasies
but those externalities could never work out
if we didnβt turn inward and learn
how to love ourselves in order to love other people
love does not look like a person
love is our actions
love is giving all we can
even if itβs just the bigger slice of cake
love is understanding
we have the power to hurt one another
but we are going to do everything in our power
to make sure we donβt
love is figuring out all the kind sweetness we deserve
and when someone shows up
saying they will provide it as you do
but their actions seem to break you
rather than build you
love is knowing who to choose
β
β
Rupi Kaur (The Sun and Her Flowers)