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    The Sun and Her Flowers
    The Sun and Her Flowers
    The Sun and Her Flowers
    Ebook268 pages1 hour

    The Sun and Her Flowers

    By Rupi Kaur

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Divided into five chapters and illustrated by kaur, the sun and her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms.

    this is the recipe of life
    said my mother
    as she held me in her arms as i wept
    think of those flowers you plant
    in the garden each year
    they will teach you
    that people too
    must wilt
    fall
    root
    rise
    in order to bloom
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAndrews McMeel Publishing
    Release dateOct 3, 2017
    ISBN9781449488895
    Author

    Rupi Kaur

    A breakout literary phenomenon and #1 New York Times Bestselling Author, Rupi Kaur wrote, illustrated, and self-published her first poetry collection milk and honey in 2014. Next came its artistic siblings the sun and her flowers and home body, both debuting at #1 on bestseller lists across the world. These collections have sold more than 11 million copies and have been translated into over 43 languages. In 2022, she released her fourth book Healing Through Words which is a journey of guided writing exercises to help the reader explore their creativity. As she has done from the very beginning, Rupi self-produced Rupi Kaur Live, the first poetry special of its kind, which debuted on Amazon Prime Video in 2021. Rupi Kaur graces stages across the globe on sold-out world tours. These shows are a poetic theatrical experience interlaced with her own touch of stand-up. Her work touches on love, loss, trauma, healing, femininity, and migration. She feels most at home when creating art, performing her poetry onstage, and spending time with family and friends.

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    Reviews for The Sun and Her Flowers

    4/5

    504 ratings28 reviews

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    • 5/5
      From my blogThere are times things come into your life at the perfect moment and the sun and her flowers was one of those moments. My niece bought this as my Christmas gift and I decided to start the year with it. Poetry is my simple pleasure but I hardly read any so I was grateful for this gift. I can see myself reading this one again.This was a powerful book about the stages of grief, told in 5 chapters. Wilting reminded me of a broken relationship, the beginning of the grieving process. Falling was a heart felt moving chapter about the importance of self-love. Rooting was about diversity, the sacrifice we take for our families, the legacy. Rising started to give us the promise of new love. Blooming was moments of beauty, blessings and special lessons. These are my interpretations of the moments and chapters while reading the book.I read 99% on my Kindle so reading a book felt like a new experience, going down memory lane. I never liked to dog ear books but without the highlight Kindle feature I had to, there was so much to love and have at my fingertips. I would like to share a poem from each chapter for you, hope you enjoy them.Wiltingday by day i realizeeverything i miss about youwas never there in the first place- the person i fell in love with was a mirageFallingif i am the longest relationshipof my lifeisn't it time tonurture intimacyand lovewith the personi lie in bed with each night- acceptanceRootingwhen it came to listeningmy mother taught me silenceif you are drowning their voice with yours how will you hear them she askedwhen it came to speakingshe said do it with commitmentevery word you sayis your own responsibility when it came to beingshe said be tender and tough at onceyou need to be vulnerable to live fullybut rough enough to survive it allwhen it came to choosingshe asked me to be thankfulfor the choices i had thatshe never had the privilege of making- lessons from mummaRisingthe right one does notstand in your waythey make space for youto step forwardBloomingto hate is an easy lazy thingbut to lovetakes strengtheveryone hasbut not all arewilling to practice
    • 5/5
      LOVED LOVED LOVED this! Normally I'm not one for poetry but Rupi Kaur showed me what's up. I didn't think anything could top her last collection (Milk and Honey), but my god, this is heaven. It's profoundly emotional, soul jarring, and introspective. It's word porn of the highest order. The Sun and Her Flowers is split into five sections: wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. Rooting was especially moving, delving into immigration and making a new life in a new country, her poems about her mother are profoundly touching. The accompanying illustrations really add to her poems, helping elicit even more of an emotional response from the reader. Her poems range from break-ups, self doubt, self-love, trust, immigration, and womanhood. I literally loved this book so much, I went out and bought it because I knew I had to possess such a a beautiful collection. A definite must read, especially for women.
    • 5/5
      Loved this collection just as much as the first one! Can't wait to read more
    • 4/5
      Rupi Kapur captures the angst inherent in late adolescence in her poetry collection The Sun and Her Flowers, including such fraught topics as feminism, self-love, body image, painful breakups, and even rape. There's also a section about her parents' immigration. Young adults who can relate to her short, accessible verses and simple drawings will find much to treasure here. As for me, I don't think that I'm the reader the poet had in mind. I found that a little of Kaur's poetic sensibility goes a long way.
    • 5/5
      Simple and Brilliant. I resonate so deeply with this! A favorite!
    • 5/5
      Just like her first book, this was an amazing heart touching second book. I love how every illustration has so much meaning and sympathy hidden in it that it feels like it's flooding the room. Ten out of ten, you should read it!
    • 3/5
      Though I only gave this collection of poetry an average rating, that doesn’t go to say that it wasn’t impactful and empowering in certain areas. I’ve always loved that Rupi Kaur writes from not only experience, but on a level that is relatable. My main issue however was that it seemed to match her first work a little much. I found it very repetitive in a lot of areas, and sadly unforgettable overall.
    • 4/5
      good one for reading this book. worth to read this.
    • 5/5
      In all honesty, I think this book is underrated compared to the hype Milk and Honey received. I'm a fan of both works but I loved the structure of this book.
    • 5/5
      Amazing book! I really enjoyed it. I feel as if I can connect with Rupi through her writing.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful, it helped me learn to love my roots
    • 5/5
      A beautiful book of poetry about love and loss, and all the other heartbreaking experiences of life. I am excited to see how she continues to improve as a poet and I relate to so many of these poems.

      Don’t expect super metaphorical or figurative language, but I guess that’s the point of poetry... to be able to express yourself in whatever you want.
    • 5/5
      I LOVED THIS POEM SO MUCH! I love her work.
    • 5/5
      It was gorgeously written. Definitely had me emotional. 10/10 reccomend
    • 5/5
      She is absolutely amazing. Her words are relatable to essentially everyone. I own the paperback copy and I am always going back to it. Simply amazing!
    • 3/5
      I liked this!

      Rupi Kaur introduced me to a style of poetry a few years ago that I really liked, and I embarked on a rather winding journey, picking up poets along the way whose work I really enjoyed and was drawn to. Nayyirah Waheed's salt, Yrsa Daley-Ward's bone, Warsan Shire's works and Vivek Shraya's poetry sat happily among hers in my mind.

      As such, I'm very grateful to Kaur for introducing me to a genre that I now have a deep love and affection for. milk and honey, her first collection made a rather big impression on me, and I enjoyed her second collection a lot too.

      I really liked the section about immigrants -- while I'm not a person of colour I recently moved to Canada and have started the immigration process there, which is long and impossible, so hearing her poems about accents and splitting yourself across two worlds and becoming a bridge was a great comfort to me.

      I actually like a lot of her very spider-y artwork -- the fine lines feel very personal and a lot of the time I think they can communicate something which the text cannot.

      However, I once again, as in my review with milk and honey, don't like the author's jealousy at all. I despise jealousy in general and I find it exhausting. I was in a long-distance relationship for about three years so any jealousy I had just died because it had to in order for my relationship with my wife to work.

      Also, while I really like the title of the poem at the bottom of a page because it feels like it adds extra emphasis on the realisation of the poem, sometimes I was confused as to where the first poem ended and the next began. Not all poems were titled and some were, so often I would read the poems separately and then together, and get a completely different meaning each time.

      I'm sure if Kaur knew about it she wouldn't mind, because each person takes a different meaning from any part of any poem and formatting isn't as important as feeling. BUT as a reader, I like to read poetry really effortlessly in order to best feel the emotions or connect with the text, and that whole title / no-title thing just took me out of the text while I tried to guess if she'd written one poem or two.

      The collection grew on me the more I read it, it was an easy read but the problems I had with it are problems I've had with her previous work so that feels... almost a little discouraging.

      Hopefully, this collection will grow more and more fond and affectionate in my memory.
    • 2/5
      i did like it more than the first one and she does have more beautiful lines in there and I actually highlighted a passage...
      but
      for god's sake
      why do people like
      this style...

      seriously it just reminds me of bad texting and also overdramatic...
      quick read though...45 mins or less :)
    • 5/5
       Now here is a poetry book I enjoyed. Just like her first one I was moved by her words. Simple and too the point. Full of emotion and pain and love. I hope she continues to share with us.
    • 4/5
      consider me surprised
      to find
      i enjoyed this book
      despite not liking the first
      opinions change and people grow
      both as readers and as writers
      never judge an author
      by their first book
      judge them by their second

      This pretty much addressed all of my criticisms of the first book. It wasn't just about sex (though there was definitely a lot of that); it was about family and love and what it means to be an immigrant. It actually made me cry on several occasions, and while I marked only 3 poems in the first book, I marked 25 in this. It was worlds away from the messy nonsense of Milk and Honey. It felt more real and genuine. It felt less like a 13-year-old's tumblr poetry and more like an adult. The narrative poems were some of my favorites and the shorter ones had messages that weren't reiterated repeatedly. I really liked it. I'm glad the years between this publication and the previous showed some growth and honed skill.
    • 4/5
      I prefer to not review poetry because it's a collection of someone's inner thoughts and you shouldn't really judge that... However, I need the credit for my goodreads challenge so I will say this... If you are a woman, buy this book. If you need inspiration, buy this book. I found it to be thought provoking and very well wrote. I loved how it pushed me to dive below the surface of my thoughts and I appreciated the focus on insecurities and personal flaws.
    • 5/5
      While it lacks the rawness which made milk and honey such a visceral experience, the sun and her flowers does not disappoint. It speaks more of self-acceptance, self-love, and the power of our predecessors than the of pain and rage that was intertwined throughout the first book. No doubt this is a reflection of the changes that occur in a woman as she moves from her early twenties into her mid. I look forward to seeing what age and experience bring to her future work.
    • 3/5
      So much hype around this collection of poems. I think it was a good collection but it didn't live up to the hype for me. Some pieces of poetry were very unique and inspirational, while others just fell flat and read like thoughts on a page - stream of consciousness rather than captivating, insightful poetry and masterfully crafted language. Not to say that it was bad, but it wasn't as amazing as I had hoped based on all the buzz! It was good for some easy poetry.
    • 5/5
      Rupi Kaur is my favorite.After binging on Milk and Honey of course I ran to Amazon for her second book of poetry immediately. Lucky for me, the kindle version was free for Prime members!Broken into 5 parts; wilting, falling, rooting, rising, blooming; Rupi takes the reader through various depictions of love, in all it’s many forms and stages. Her writing is not only beautiful but deeply thought provoking. She has an uncanny ability to portray so much depth in such simple sentences. Her illustrations provide the perfect accompaniment to her words in that same simple yet powerful way that I have come to expect and love.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I purchased this book before I'd read Milk and Honey, and honestly, I wouldn't have bought this book at all had I not fallen for the hype of Rupi Kaur's poetry before sitting down and reading it.This book offers some more emotion and I feel like I got to "know" the author more in this collection, but I just don't care for Rupi's style at all. Most of her poems just feel like random sentences (sometimes run-on sentences) that are oddly spaced, oftentimes followed by a title that sums up the poem. A sample of my own making:Basicallya bunch of sentencesand randomspaces that aresomehowmeant to pass aspoetry--This Book's ContentsI've taken to reading more poetry lately, and the more I read, the more I dislike Kaur's work.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic!!!
    • 1/5
      This is the BEST book of poetry in 2017?
      It’s a joke.
      A BAD ONE.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I absolutely love these poems. The art on each page is lovely as well. I like the story and message being told with each poem.
    • 5/5
      I thought this volume was just as good as her first one, I loved all of the poems and her writing style.

    Book preview

    The Sun and Her Flowers - Rupi Kaur

    also by rupi kaur

    milk and honey

    the sun and her flowers copyright © 2017 by Rupi Kaur. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

    Andrews McMeel Publishing

    a division of Andrews McMeel Universal

    1130 Walnut Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106

    www.andrewsmcmeel.com

    www.rupikaur.com

    ISBN: 978-1-4494-8889-5

    Library of Congress Control Number: 2017948761

    Illustrations and design by Rupi Kaur

    ATTENTION: SCHOOLS AND BUSINESSES

    Andrews McMeel books are available at quantity discounts with bulk purchase for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail the Andrews McMeel Publishing Special Sales Department: specialsales@amuniversal.com.

    to my makers

    kamaljit kaur and suchet singh

    i am. because of you.

    i hope you look at us

    and think

    your sacrifices were worth it

    to my stunning sisters and brother

    prabhdeep kaur

    kirandeep kaur

    saaheb singh

    we are in this together

    you define love.

    contents

    wilting

    falling

    rooting

    rising

    blooming

    bees came for honey

    flowers giggled as they

    undressed themselves

    for the taking

    the sun smiled

    - the second birth

    on the last day of love

    my heart cracked inside my body

    i spent the entire night

    casting spells to bring you back

    i reached for the last bouquet of flowers

    you gave me

    now wilting in their vase

    one

    by

    one

    i popped their heads off

    and ate them

    i stuffed a towel at the foot of every door

    leave i told the air

    i have no use for you

    i drew every curtain in the house

    go i told the light

    no one is coming in

    and no one is going out

    - cemetery

    you left

    and i wanted you still

    yet i deserved someone

    who was willing to stay

    i spend days in bed debilitated by loss

    i attempt to cry you back

    but the water is done

    and still you have not returned

    i pinch my belly till it bleeds

    have lost count of the days

    sun becomes moon and

    moon becomes sun and

    i become ghost

    a dozen different thoughts

    tear through me each second

    you must be on your way

    perhaps it’s best if you’re not

    i am okay

    no

    i am angry

    yes

    i hate you

    maybe

    i can’t move on

    i will

    i forgive you

    i want to rip my hair out

    over and over and over again

    till my mind exhausts itself into a silence

    yesterday

    the rain tried to imitate my hands

    by running down your body

    i ripped the sky apart for allowing it

    - jealousy

    in order to fall asleep

    i have to imagine your body

    crooked behind mine

    spoon ladled into spoon

    till i can hear your breath

    i have to recite your name

    till you answer and

    we have a conversation

    only then

    can my mind

    drift off to sleep

    - pretend

    it isn’t what we left behind

    that breaks me

    it’s what we could’ve built

    had we stayed

    i can still see our construction hats lying

    exactly where we left them

    pylons unsure of what to guard

    bulldozers gazing out for our return

    the planks of wood stiff in their boxes

    yearning to be nailed up

    but neither of us goes back

    to tell them it is over

    in time

    the bricks will grow tired of waiting and crumble

    the cranes will droop their necks in sorrow

    the shovels will rust

    do you think flowers will grow here

    when you and i are off

    building something new

    with someone else

    - the construction site of our future

    i live for that first second in the morning

    when i am still half-conscious

    i

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