by: Erin Morrison
When you think of poetry, you might think of some of the great poets like Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, or Walt Whitman—all poets that play with rhyme patterns, long stanzas, and metaphors that can be hard to wrap your head around. However, if you keep up with current day poets on social media, then you have probably heard of Instagram poetry or “Instapoetry.” Instapoetry is written in a simpler format than what you might be used to. With a looser structure, Instapoems can be two lines long and involve no hidden meaning, or they can be a complete poem. The poems are usually shared by the poet on Instagram or on another social media site.
Books filled with these poems are becoming increasingly popular. Poet Rupi Kaur, who has a bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric Studies and almost four million Instagram followers, is one of the most well-known Instapoets. She became an acclaimed author and illustrator through her shorter and more digestible poems.
Kaur’s debut book of poems, “Milk and Honey,” has sold over 1 million copies in the first year and was on the “New York Times” bestsellers list for over a year. There are dozens of online poets like Kaur who have had poem collections published: Amanda Lovelace, Lang Leav, R. H. Sin, and Atticus to name a few.
There have been many critics of Instapoetry publishing in recent years. Many critics claim that it is not “real” poetry or is simply not good poetry. Some even are angry that there are poets working hard who deserve to be published more than an Instapoet. Thom Schnarre, Professor of Humanities, teaches English, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Literature at Parkland College. He told The Prospectus, “I think every form of publication is evolving,” meaning there are fewer rules when it comes to what gets published and that whether it is fair or not. The marketplace is a lot more virtual today.
If Instapoetry stays popular and people keep buying the poems, publishers will continue to publish Instapoets’ collections. Another sign that Instapoetry is not going anywhere is that The National Poetry Library in the UK just officially added Instagram poetry as a genre to its extensive catalogue; the library even hosted the world’s first ever Instagram Poetry Exhibition.
As to whether Instapoetry is “bad” or “not authentic” poetry, Schnarre said that, “My definition of a bad poem is a Hallmark card.” He also talked about how poetry has been changing since the Beat generation of the 50s. During that time period, many of the poets had no formal training, and poetry went from being focused on rhyme and stanzas, like Shakespeare’s works, to being more conversational and more free verse.
“…with the freer structure and conversational language, the new form of poetry can be less intimidating to readers and writers alike”
Schnarre told the Prospectus that what is most important about a poem is sound and rhythm. “So, every word matters and where you place them matters,” he said. A misconception he thinks some people might get about poetry is that they will never be able to understand what a poem is trying to say; he said that even the older poems that have deep metaphors are easy to understand with just a little research.
Even if you are not a fan of Instagram poetry and your skin crawls every time you read one of the online poems, the Instagram poetry market has made poetry more accessible to everyone and anyone. Instapoems are readily available on your social media feeds or with a quick Google search, and with the freer structure and conversational language, the new form of poetry can be less intimidating to readers and writers alike.
