‘new_poem.gif: the alleged afterlife of poetry brought to us by the millennial internet’
— Andrew Sargus Klein
Platypus Press alum jayy dodd has started a recurring feature at the Poetry Foundation, and if the opening salvo is any indication, it’s going to be a fantastic series.
dodd takes aim at the perennial “is poetry dead?” and efficiently eviscerates it. They then pivot to the proliferation of poetry through the internet, specifically social media, and is able to succinctly get to why the fashionable criticism of this dynamic is so thin:
The medium of Instagram, here as a placeholder for social media writ large, has fundamentally shifted our national consciousness, from language to politics. That poetry has made its necessary mutation to this dimension feels more logical than surprising. Social Media hosts a multi-sensory experience for poetry that is often missing or somehow not readily implemented in formal education. There is immensely more relatability in seeing poetry in the same psychological space as family, friends, & other desired subjects.
I keep thinking about this line: “There is immensely more relatability in seeing poetry in the same psychological space as family.” What affirmation, what a rallying cry, what a relief to see this feeling put into words.
So much of The Discourse around Instapoets and Twitter and whatever, is all but devoid of generosity. The crucible of capitalism and cynicism and hyper-connectivity means so many people operate from a baseline of suspicion. Authenticity is seen as just another input value in a formula meant to claim something. It’s exhausting, this cynicism. Critiques of Nayyirah Waheed and Rupi Kaur rarely talk about the poetry itself—it’s about the medium, the personalities, the marketplace.
I’m tired of it. But I’m a little less tired having read this essay.