Beyond Words - Rupi Kaur '15 Faculty of Arts

So the first time I knew that my poetry was affecting my readers was late 2014.
I had just started sharing my poetry actually, and a woman left a comment
on one of my pieces and she said: “Your poetry makes me feel like such a woman.”
When she left that comment on my page,
I was really able to just sit back with myself and ask myself
why that was so important and what feeling a woman is even like.
What does it mean to be a woman in 2017?
It means to be simultaneously empowered, but discouraged.
It means to feel excited, but also aware of the barriers.
As a young female in a Tamil household, it’s very protective and very conservative.
You can’t hug boys, you can’t play sports.
I play touch football.
I love to play football.
So when I get told: “Just stay at home, help with the house, help with the family,”
it really makes me feel like I’m being smothered instead of allowed to be the free spirit that I am.
You’re a woman.
You’re supposed to be quiet.
You’re supposed to be petite.
You’re supposed to just you know blend in to the space.
I live every day wanting to fit some sort of standard
of what is a woman that is just complete crap.
(Laughs)
I think it’s very difficult to be a woman.
Now more than ever it’s important that women stick together
and really help each other out.
Did you think I was a city big enough for a weekend getaway?
I am the town surrounding it.
The one you’ve never heard of
but always pass through.
There are no neon lights here.
No skyscrapers
or statues,
but there is thunder
for I make bridges tremble.
I am not street meat.
I am homemade jam
thick enough to cut the sweetest thing
your lips will touch.
I am not police sirens.
I am the crackle of a fireplace.
I would burn you and you still couldn’t take your eyes off me
cause I’d look so beautiful doing it
you’d blush.
I am not a hotel room. I am home.
I am not the whiskey you want;
I am the water you need.
So don’t come here with your expectations
and try to make a vacation out of me.
Fierce.
Strong.
Beautiful.
Important.
Resilient.
It’s amazing to have a poem that just makes you sometimes just want to sit there and cry.
After reading her poems, I always feel like “Damn, she put that out there.”
Thank God somebody put that out there, because I needed to hear it.
I feel validation.
I feel a sense of support.
I feel like Rupi is hugging me.
I feel like I’m not alone.
The world gives you so much pain
and here you are making gold out of it.
There is nothing purer than that.

Beyond Words - Rupi Kaur '15 Faculty of Arts

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