LS Impulse #7 Book: Milk & Honey

For this impulse post, I looked at a book that has been around for some years (2014) but is still one of the pioneers for modern poetry: Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. Even though it is not a lecture, exhibition, or event in the classical sense, I see it as an important “media impulse” because it strongly influenced how I think about the relationship between text, emotion, and visual form. See my other Blogpost #6 where I analysed Instapoetry 🙂

Milk and Honey is a collection of short poems and illustrations that deal with themes such as love, trauma, migration, femininity, abuse, healing, and self-empowerment. The poems are extremely minimal and often only a few lines long, written in lowercase, with very simple language and almost no punctuation. Many pages combine text with small line drawings. The aesthetic is raw and direct, almost like notes from a diary.

At first glance, the poems seem almost too simple. They don’t follow traditional poetic structures or complex metaphors. But while reading, I realized that this simplicity is exactly what makes them powerful. The short lines create a strong rhythm. Breaks, spacing, and repetition function almost like breathing. Instead of literary complexity, the poems rely on emotional clarity.

What struck me most is how carefully the relationship between text and space is designed. Each page feels like a small poster or a micro-composition. The white space is just as important as the words themselves. Sometimes a single sentence sits alone on the page, which forces you to slow down and really confront it. It reminded me less of a “book” and more of a sequence of visual statements.

In that sense, reading Milk and Honey felt very close to experiencing graphic design. The poems don’t only communicate through language but they communicate through layout, scale, rhythm, and reduction.

Another interesting aspect is the accessibility of the work. Kaur’s poetry reached a huge audience, especially young women and Finta* readers, mainly through Instagram or tumblr in the beginning. The poems were made to be shared digitally as images. This blurs the line between literature and visual communication. They function almost like typographic posters or social media graphics rather than traditional poetry. The format itself became part of the message.

What does this have to do with communication design?

For me, the book shows how strongly emotion can be shaped by visual decisions. The same text in a dense paragraph would probably feel heavy or dramatic. But isolated on a white page, it feels intimate and personal. The design creates the tone.

It also made me think about reduction as a strategy. In communication design, we often try to add information, layers, or complexity. Kaur does the opposite: she removes everything that is not essential. This minimal approach creates clarity and makes the message more memorable.

Additionally, there is something rhythmic about her writing style. Even without obvious rhyme schemes, the repetition of sentence structures, pauses, and short lines creates a poetic cadence. It made me reflect again on how rhythm and pattern can guide perception in language and in visuals.

Relevance for my Master’s thesis

Since I’m currently exploring the idea of rhyme, repetition, and recognition in visual design, Milk and Honey feels surprisingly relevant. It shows how text can become image and how language can function spatially.

For my Master’s research, this raises questions like:
How can typography create rhythm similar to poetry or rap?
Can repetition, spacing, or minimal compositions act as a form of “visual rhyme”?
How can emotional content be communicated through subtle, reduced design rather than loud statements?

Kaur’s work demonstrates that small, quiet forms of expression can still have a huge cultural impact. This connects strongly to my interest in subtle protest, everyday feminism, and intimate forms of communication design. In that sense, Milk and Honey is not only a poetry book but also a lesson in how powerful minimal visual language can be and work.