Home Body
Home Body—Rupi Kaur
Year Read: 2021
Summary:
Purchase on Bookshop.org (affiliate link).
Favorite Quotes:
after feeling disconnected
for so long
my mind and body are finally
coming back to each other
-home body
sex is a way for people to
transcend into each other
and come apart
a beautiful earthy expression
it feels like i’m watching my life happen through a fuzzy television screen. i feel far away from this world. almost foreign in this body.
my body is the map of my life
cry it. walk it. write it. scream it. dance it
out of your body.
what we lived through
is living in us
i want a standing ovation
for every person who
wakes up and moves toward the sun
i wrap my holy legs
around his heavy head
and let his tongue swim
toward salvation
-baptize
there are years in me
that have not slept
i excavate my life
package it up
sell it to the world
and when they ask for more
i dig through bones
trying to write poems
the land sprawled its limbs
and said put your feet up
the trees said we will give you life
the air said breathe me in
the earth said
take care of what takes care of you
and we turned our backs on all of them
-betrayal
being the loudest on earth’s playground
doesn’t make us any more
important than
the dirt we crush beneath our feet
we are nothing except air
and fire and water and soil
we are a people
who forget what we are made of
a people who talk about the weather
as if it’s mundane and not magic
as if the oceans
are not holy water
as if the sky
is not a vision
i’m a new person every month
always becoming and unbecoming
only to become again
our fuller selves are not off in the future
they’re right here
in the only moment that exists
i will be searching for answers my whole life
not because i’m a half-formed thing
but because i’m brilliant enoughtokeepgrowing
everything necessary to live a vivid life
already exists in me
but magic doesn’t move like that
your rushing is
suffocating the masterpieces
baking inside you
your job is to
show up for the process
be patient and when it’s time
the universe will use you again
on days you can’t hear yourself
slow down to
let your mind and body
catch up to each other
– stillness
you are one person
but when you move
an entire community
walks through you
– you go nowhere alone
the world is changing
can you feel it
undressing itself
isn’t it funny how you can
occupy a space without
being in touch with it
there is a conversation
happening inside you
pay deep attention
to what your inner world
is saying
i dive into the well of my body
and end up in another world
everything i need
already exists in me
there’s no need
to look anywhere else
– home
i will never have
this version of me again
let me slow down
and be with her
– always evolving
your beauty is undeniable
but everything sacred and ancient
in you
is even more stunning