There’s a new breed of aspiring poets taking over Instagram. With World Poetry Day all set to be celebrated on March 21, THE GOAN chats with a few young Goans who have enthusiastically joined the growing tribe
CHRISTINE MACHADO
Instagram may have begun as just a platform to share stories and moments of your life through images. But since then it has evolved as a favorite space for many to post about their businesses, hobbies and much more.
Among these, there have been a growing number of posts devoted to poetry. In fact quite a few of these poets have since found success. Think R M Drake, Christopher Poindexter, Beau Taplin and also Rupi Kaur who is of Indian descent. In fact Rupi Kaur made her maiden poetry tour to India just recently.
Closer home, a lot of young Goan writers are also hopping onto Instagram to pour out their soul in byte size writings.
You’re not alone
Many of these aspiring poets have been motivated to do so as a way of connecting with other people and letting them know that they are not alone in what they are feeling.
“I’ve been writing since I was a child, but I never shared my work. But somewhere at the age of 18, I realised that I am not the only person who feels the way I feel about heartbreak, love, the idea of self-love and all other things teenagers go through, so I decided to share my work on Instagram to let people know that that aren’t the only ones going through it,” says Sonia Sabnis who began posting in May last year.
Posting about what they felt also serves as a form of catharsis for these young poets. “I started posting because I was feeling a certain way and in order to pick myself up, I wrote for myself, telling myself that I must be better. And I put it out there because I knew there were people going through the same emotions as I did,” says Gretchen Barretto, who began around 2015.
A confidence boost
Getting some love on Instagram has also helped those who are shy to normally showcase their creativity, a means to put it out there while hiding behind their phone screens. In fact two girls who were students of St Xavier’s College, Mapusa – Rochelle Fernandes and Ana Viegas, decided to give their fellow Xavierites a chance to do just that.
“We just felt that there were a ton of students who had a lot to say but shied away. So this kind of gave them a platform to voice their opinions about anything and everything. We let many posts stay anonymous,” says Rochelle.
And while this initially gained a steady following from other Xaviers students, people from other colleges too have now begun following their page – Lexophiles Lair.
Poetry is not dead
And while up until a few years ago, there had been murmurs about how poetry as an art form was dying out, the rapidly growing trend towards insta- poetry especially proves otherwise. As does the growing following for these insta-poets. “Poetry is the essence of life so yes people will read it. All you need is visibility. A while ago, people said reading was dead, but it is picking up once again especially the young adult genre,” says Wesley D’Souza. Declan Da Silva Pereira who started a separate poetry page threesixteen316 about three years ago also agrees with this illustrating a project that he decided to do in 2017 called Project Word.
“I started Project Word because through the years, I had friends telling me that they wished someone wrote something for them. That made me realize that they do deserve that, everybody deserves to have poetry written about them,” he says.
The project consisted of two parts. On one hand he asked his followers to send him a word that meant something to them. They could decide whether they wanted to tell him what they wanted him to write about or not. On the other hand he collaborated with writers from around the world, where they would have poetry sessions over social media, share singular words and then write poetry or prose on it. “I did one collaboration with someone in Delhi and even in the US,” he adds.
Gretchen too points out that poetry is in fact gaining quite a momentum. “We have these poetry slam nights which are quite popular. The Habitat in Mumbai is one such place that has given spoken poetry a platform in India. And with specific regard to written poetry on Instagram, we have the very popular likes of Rupi Kaur for example,” she says.
More than just a social media phenomenon
And it’s not just about getting likes and followers. Once you get a good following, it is definitely possible to strike gold as a poet and sell. In fact Rupi Kaur’s latest book Milk and Honey has sold nearly half a million print copies.
“A whole chunk of the youth is on various social networking sites. Whether you go viral or steadily develop a base of followers, it can surely lead to something. There are better chances of you being noticed and people’s response encourages you to someday put out your work in print,” says Komal, adding that building up your confidence by posting online, experimenting with words and structure, would be the first few steps to releasing something worthwhile of your own.
And a lot of these poets do hope that if they are satisfied with their abilities and the response, they may move towards doing books of their own.
On critics
A lot of insta poets however have come under criticism from certain sections who insist that what these people post isn’t poetry at all but just a random stringing of words together which is more qualified to be self-help quotes.
“To these people, I’d say look up ‘poetic licence’. Whitman was criticized for writing in a completely revolutionary way People didn’t like it then. But today, he’s a giant in the world of poetry,” states Wesley.
“I don’t think anyone can decide what poetry is. Everyday you have new people out there, changing the definition of poetry. Poetry is each person’s individual perspective of the world put into words. Now you can’t say that someone’s perspective isn’t real, can you?” adds Sonia.
