Gabby's Reviews > The Sun and Her Flowers

"i do not weep because i'm unhappy, i weep because i have everything yet i am unhappy."

Holy shit, I enjoyed this book even more than Milk and Honey. This is a collection of poetry divided into five chapters: wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. The poems mainly revolve around grief, self love, self hate, rape, immigration, feminism, depression and empowerment. My favorite parts of this poetry collection were the longer poems that told a story and had a thin black box surrounding it. My two favorites are home and the art of growing. Those are both incredibly powerful poems about rape and feminism that really hit home for me.

"i can't wrap my head around the fact
that i have to convince half the world's population
my body is not their bed
i am busy learning the consequences of womanhood
when i should be learning science and math instead."

The main reason I liked this collection of poetry more than Milk and Honey is because this collection reads like a story, and it has so many amazing and insightful poems about immigration and feminism that really moved me. I loved the stories about her parents and the struggles they overcame in America, and how she isn't ashamed of who she is, and you can really tell she thinks the world of her Mother and I think it's so beautiful. Especially the poem about female infanticide really struck a chord with me and made me really depressed. She effortlessly covers such controversial topics in these poems and it's so refreshing, her voice is so powerful.

"they leave and act like it never happened, they come back and act like they never left."

I just feel really inspired and empowered after reading this. I feel like the main theme of these poems is summed up perfectly by this one poem: "how do i teach myself to accept a healthy love if all i've ever known is pain." This collection of poems is about falling out of love and finding someone new and I like the way it kind of reads like a story in that way. I am just blown away by how powerful some of these poems about feminism are and some of them gave me fucking chills and I loved it.

"there are mountains growing
beneath our feet
that cannot be contained
all we've endured
has prepared us for this
bring your hammers and fists
we have a glass ceiling to shatter"