The inception of a fine career
"‘They gave a broken girl the will to believe in herself. ’ – The inception of a fine career! Canadian poet/performer/producer Rupi Kaur is considered one of the most important and most popular poets of the day. This initial collection of her poems was published in 2014 and now in this 2024 edition her poems are enhanced by art and unique presentations and additional poems that touch on love, loss, trauma, healing, femininity, and imigration. Of interest, as this volume opens, Rupi relates her initiation as a performing poet. ‘I performed my first poem onstage in 2009. I was a terrified 17-year-old gir who had just escaped an abusive three-year relationship…. Performing in front of an audience was the exact opposite of what my extremely shy personality would lean into, btu for some odd reason, I signed up. ’ Rupi’s collection of poems is at once powerful, supportive, eloquent and intriguing – moments that bring solace and understanding on so very many levels. One of her poems is shared below: when my mother was pregnant with her second child i was four i pointed at her swollen belly confused at how my mother had gotten so big in such a little time my father scooped me in his tree trunk arms and said the closest thing to god on this earth is a woman’s body it’s where life comes from and to have a grown man tell me something so powerful at such an age changed me to see the entire universe rested at my mother’s feet Rupi accompanies her poems with subtle line drawing illustrations that enhance the significance of her meaningful poems, possibly the way her ‘performances’ of her poems bring even more substance to her work. Coping and celebrating may seem like extreme opposite responses, but that is what Rupi’s poems provide – thoughts of significance for us all. No wonder this has become a treasured book!"