Mark, that is far too much to ask! We are in agreement that she is not a good poet. To read her poems as poems, which is what all of us on this thread are doing, seems to me a mistake. Yet I'd still rather read her than Ocean Vuong, whose every word, line, and poem is so cloyingly sentimental and artificial-feeling that all of it comes off as insincere and manipulative--though we are told over and over again and by everyone that he is an artist, a great writer. Which brings me to my point: Kaur presents her poems with no pretension; we are the ones who turn them into something else. I think they are merely a way in which she markets herself to a social media audience and that they have no claims to being great literature. That is what I find likable about Kaur.
Thanks, John, for the anecdote! If I had to be religious and had to pick from one of the three great monotheistic religions, I would pick Islam, whose emphasis on words as words and letters as letters, and the metaphysical implications therein, I find strangely relatable and beautiful. A favorite book of poetry is David Melnick's
PCOET, which you can read
here and which is gibberish yet not devoid of meaning or beauty.