Emma Winters Responds to Instagram Poetry's Popularity

Visit America to read Emma Winters's opinion of the Instagram poetry trend. Winters begins, "[i]f one more Instagram poet tells me how to feel or what to think, I am going to lose my mind." From there: 

I was bursting to scream this as I read through Nikita Gill’s book of poems, wild embers, which has a section of fairy tales retold with a feminist bent. The Prince’s kiss in Sleeping Beauty is reframed as a violation of consent, and the speaker of the poem uses this new version to teach her daughter to say no. “I will use this story to help her understand, no boy has/ the right to touch her without her consent just because he/ thinks she is pretty,” reads the third stanza of “Sleeping Beauty.”

Does Gill’s poem provide a positive message about consent? Yes. Are there stories in our collective imagination that are misogynistic? Of course. Should new, reimagined versions be written? Absolutely. The problem with “Sleeping Beauty” (and many other Instagram poems) is the execution.

Democracy in Poetry
Right now Instagram poets are developing audiences on social media and turning those followers into fans that buy books. For instance, Rupi Kaur, who has 3.1 million followers on Instagram, made waves when her first book sold 2.5 million copies. And while remaining anonymous and wearing a mask, the mysterious Atticus has published two books with Simon & Schuster and gathered some 905,000 followers on Instagram. Many Instagram poets even reject the title of Instagram poet altogether, saying they are just poets who use the medium.

There are, however, themes and commonalities that exist loosely across those who share their work on social media. Many Instagram poets write about self-love, romantic love, heartbreak and sexual violence. They tend to write shorter poems for online consumption (one short sentence is a common length). And by virtue of being available for free on Instagram, these poets are democratizing how poetry is shared and who can write it, bypassing literary journals and M.F.A. programs. This has brought poetry back into the public discourse and given those who have historically been marginalized in the publishing world—including women and people of color—a new way to make their voices heard.

Read more at America.