Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish meme created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @ Book Nook Bits and Dini @ Dinipandareads! Every Friday they have a different topic for participants to write about and discuss, e.g. like this post.
This week’s theme is about Instagram poetry and the like:
A few years ago, poetry saw a surge of popularity on social media thanks to “Instagram Poetry” or “instapoetry” by authors like Rupi Kaur, Amanda Lovelace, and Atticus. Do you think social media platforms have changed how people discover poetry? Do you think “instapoetry” makes poetry seem more approachable, or do you agree with critics who say that it’s not “real poetry”? Have you read any instapoetry, and if so, what are your favourite authors/poems/collections?
So let’s take it bit by bit…
Do you think social platforms have changed how people discover poetry?
Like any change in how people communicate, yes, and also because it proves a different potential poetic form as well as a different platform, just like artificial character limits created a trend for very short fiction among a subset of people.
It hasn’t changed how I discover poetry, since I’m not on Instagram and I’ve been a reader (and writer) of poetry since I was a child, before anything even generally like Instagram was accessible: I read poetry collections and anthologies (often via my libraries by just picking at random), follow recommendations from other readers via reviews and blogs (though there aren’t a ton around that talk about poetry much), and am a member of the National Poetry Library (UK folks interested in poetry should sign up!).
Do you think “instapoetry” makes poetry seem more approachable, or do you agree with critics who say that it’s not “real poetry”?
I’m not super interested in artificial cutoffs here; if someone says they’re writing poetry, they’re writing poetry, whether it’s poetry that IÂ like or not. I suspect “instapoetry” is indeed more accessible for some, in part because it’s out there on a social media platform they use, rather than tucked away in specific poetry collections that they might not have access to or know about. Poetry is often seen as less accessible than prose anyway, and putting it out there in people’s Instagram feeds is often getting it in front of people who wouldn’t otherwise seek out poetry.
A lot of people who want to create artificial barriers and say something isn’t “real poetry” or “a real novel” or a real anything else are threatened by it and frightened of change, contemptuous of what “young people” (or other trendsetting subgroups) like as a reflex to prove their superiority, etc. There are reasons why critics may not like a given poem, instapoetry or not, and those are valid… but dismissing the whole form/format? That’s sour grapes about something becoming popular of which they don’t approve, and I don’t have time for it.
Have you read any instapoetry, and if so, what are your favourite authors/poems/collections?
Not much that I’m aware of, but it’s not that I wouldn’t; I don’t promise to like it, but I’d happily try it. I borrowed Rupi Kaur’s milk and honey from the National Poetry Library this week, and didn’t love it, though I could see the appealing factors.
Any other suggestions I should try?
I’ve come to dread instapoetry being submitted to the URC, just because I will inevitably read it and find it wanting, and then not be able to properly talk about it because it’s often personal enough that I feel bad criticising it. Then again, my taste in poetry is such that the most recently-born poet I can name as one I enjoy is Dylan Thomas… There’s a few later poets I can at least say I thought they were doing something interesting even if I didn’t like it myself and don’t seek out more, but for poets I would quote or reread? Oh dear.
HarpGriffin recently posted…A book with something crossed out on the cover
I have liked a fair number of more recent poets, but I often don’t “get it” when people praise particular poets/styles/etc (like Rupi Kaur), I admit. Certainly I don’t intend to say it’s all good poetry… but it is all poetry, is the main point.
I think we agree about the following; I’m just taking up the baton.
I fundamentally disagree with the attitude that there’s Real Poetry and there’s…fake poetry? Wannabe poetry?
I don’t believe that there are Real Poets who produce great works, while everybody else just gets to appreciate them. Poetry, like music, like art in general, is a human activity. It’s for everyone. It doesn’t need to be gatekept, any more than breathing ought to be.
Go back a couple centuries, and people wrote after-dinner poems. Most of them were nonce works that were appreciated in the moment and not intended to go any further; some have lasted longer. Consider also such phenomena as rap battles and flyting. My own cultural tradition has grammen on Purim, consisting of extemporaneous competitive accentual quatrains. Just because it’s ephemeral doesn’t mean it’s not poetry! (One of my favorite modern sonnets was originally written in the comments on a blog post.)
If Instagram is serving that function today, great! It’s not my platform, but I’m glad other people have it.
On the recommendation side, many of the poems in Len Pennie’s poyums and poyums annaw first appeared on TikTok (some in English, some in Scots; I admit I find the latter easier to follow when she’s reading them), and I commend them to your attention.
100%. If the intent is to produce poetry, poetry is produced — regardless of the quality or whether it suits my taste.