Lucía’s Reviews > Milk and honey > Status Update

your art
is not about how many people
like your work
your art
is about
if your heart likes your work
if your soul likes your work
it’s about how honest
You are with yourself
and you
must never trade honesty
for relatability
—to all young poets

most importantly love
like it’s the only thing you know how
at the end of the day all this
means nothing
this page
where you‘re sitting
your degree
your job
the money
nothing even matters
except love and human connection
who you loved
and how deeply you loved them
how you touched the people around you
and how much you gave them

for you to see beauty here
does not mean
there is beauty in me
it means there is beauty rooted
so deep within you
you can’t help but
see it everywhere

how you love yourself
is how you teach others
to love you

the world
gives yo
so much pain
and here you are
making gold out of it
—there is nothing purer than that

to be
soft
is
to be
powerful

fall
in love
with your solitude

it takes grace
to remain kind
in cruel situations

you are in the habit
of co-depending
on people to
make up for what
you think you lack

who tricked you
into believing
another person
was meant to complete you
when the most they can do is complement

when it was i that taught you. when it was i that showed you how to fill. the way i needed to be filled. how cruel i was to myself. giving you credit for my warmth simply because you had felt it. thinking it was you who gave me strength. wit. beauty. Simply because you recognize it. as if i was already not these things before i met you. as if i did not remain all this once you left.