106 DECEMBER 2017Poet Rupi Kaur talks The Sun and Her Flowers
and handling social media. By Ella Cerón.and handling social media. By Ella Cerón.WellWWell versedell versedversed
VOGUE CULTUREhanceshances are you’ve seen Rupi Kaur’s poetry, either hances are you’ve seen Rupi Kaur’s poetry, either hances are you’ve seen Rupi Kaur’s poetry, either hances are you’ve seen Rupi Kaur’s poetry, either areyou’veseenRupiK au r ’sp o e t r y,either
from Kaur herself or a fan’s regram of her work. Of
course, even without fans reposting her work to
their own feeds, Kaur’s reach is considerable on its own.
The writer, who self-published her first poetry book, Milk
and Honey, in 2014, has more than 1.7 million followers on
Instagram and thousands more on Facebook and Twitter.
And her work, which is characterised by short,
punctuation-less phrases and sparse drawings, inspires
comments from the second she posts a new poem.
Now she has a new book out, The Sun and Her Flowers,
which features five new chapters of poems on loss, love,
loneliness and identity. Here, we talk to the writer and
profile some of the poems from her latest book.
Where did you find the inspiration for these poems, and
for the five-segment format?
RK: “Three years ago, I thought the book was going to beCC
atrue chapter book. The first chapter would be the darkness and it would take
readers through the experience of an unhealthy love and what that makes aperson
feel, and how that defines their lens and how they navigate the world. Then the
second chapter would be the light chapter and it was going to talk about a healthy
relationship and what that is like.
“What I really wanted to focus on was that corrective experience that happens.
Ithink we’re like: ‘Oh, in unhealthy relationships, people are really sad, and then
somebody great comes along and it’s all like, butterflies and rainbows.’ But it doesn’t
really work like that. When you experience violence for so long, when something
comes to you and it’s not violent, you don’t know how to define that ...
“But all these other themes kind of just wouldn’t stop coming to me. I was writing
about death and I was writing about immigration and I was like: ‘No, no, no, I don’t
need to be writing about this stuff. I have the concept of what my book is going to be.’
Eventually, at the end of last year, I just stopped fighting that and I was like: ‘I’m just
going to write what comes.’”
How do you navigate social media response to your work?
RK: “I think as my readership grows online, more and more, I protect myself and what
I read more and more. And I did that earlier on because I had the fear that if I read too
many comments and this and that, it might actually change what I wrote about. I didn’t
want 500 comments under a poem telling me to write about this topic more to suddenly
change my vision. But also, with a lot of positivity, there’s going to be negativity. And
I don’t have to wallow in that. My job is to focus on the work and the art.”
The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur (Simon & Schuster, $24.99) is out now. PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPH: NABIL SHASHSTYLIST: CHRISTIAN CLASSENIMAGES COURTESY OF SIMON & SCHUSTER AUSTRALIARupi Kaur wears
a Gucci dress a Gucci dress
and shoes. Rings and shoes. Rings
from Effy Jewelry.from Effy Jewelry.