Kaur uses the tagline where poets usually credit themselves in creative ways throughout her previous poetry collections. Kaur’s poems continue her trend of the importance of opening up to other and how being emotional is okay, no matter what kind of person you may be. This chapter especially connects with a male audience, questioning masculinity and standing with the equality for both women and men. Her fourth chapter, “rising,” discusses love, opening up and new beginnings. This chapter provides a layer of further depth to Kaur’s typically raw and real poetry. The lack of illustrations is due to the poems’ serious and grim subject matter.

Confronting topics such as terrorist attacks, immigration and divisions of rights allow readers to tie poetry with situations they may see and face in their everyday lives. “rooting,” the third chapter in the collection, incorporates poems surrounding ideas of where people come from and tying problems society faces today to their original roots. The use of illustrations alongside her poems allows more serious topics to feel welcoming and open for conversation, since they aren’t always addressed in society today. Drawings of crowded people and empty bodies truly reflect the themes of this chapter, foreshadowing what will come next throughout the following chapters. The illustrations Kaur uses to create visuals of the message she hopes to send to readers help to provide a better look of experiences Kaur may have faced herself. The second chapter, “falling,” includes poems and illustrations dealing with moments of loss and confusion, especially the roadblocks of life. Though the poem’s main messages to readers are about becoming broken from others actions and feeling lost with yourself, Kaur’s use of only lowercase letters in her poetry contribute to the novel’s mundane and simple tone, fitting for the poetic content. In “the sun and her flowers,” the themes are more subdued compared to the serious yet equally important topics of abuse and rape written in her previous novel. The book’s first chapter, “wilting,” deals with issues of abandonment and self-hate. This format is similar to her previous collection of poems “milk and honey,” but is different in that Kaur includes the concept of flowers in every chapter. The book is divided into five chapters of poems relating to an overarching subject. “the sun and her flowers,” released this October, continues this trend of themes plus topics of abandonment and empowering one’s self. Kaur released her first book, “milk and honey,” in 2015, which addressed love, loss, trauma, abuse, healing and femininity. 1 New York Times bestseller and illustrator Rupi Kaur is back again with her most recent book, “the sun and her flowers,” another collection of self-written poems.

Rupi kaur new book