Happy Friday! Fingers crossed I am back on the LTB train now!

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly bookish discussion meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and Dini @DiniPandaReads. Each Friday, bloggers will write posts about a particular topic and share on their blog.

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?

So, I am not a poetry reader. I never really have been. I’m not super emotional, and I don’t often get that connection to poetry because of it. That being said, I do appreciate poetry for what it can do with language and storytelling.

Instagram Poetry becoming popular with Rupi Kaur was one of the things that actually bought poetry back into my notice, so I do think that social media has made it easier for people to become aware of poetry as an art form, especially as (from what I can see personally), poetry isn’t promoted in the same way that general fiction is.

Do you think “instapoetry” makes poetry seem more approachable, or do you agree with critics who say that it’s not “real poetry”?

I personally do think ‘instapoetry’ makes poetry more accessible. Take myself as an example here. I don’t typically read poetry because I never know if I will like it, so why would I go out and spend money on a poetry book? Having poetry available on a platform like Instagram means that I can try reading it without putting myself out of pocket. If I like what I read, then I can more confidently choose to spend my money. The fact that ‘instapoetry’ is short is also a bonus to me here. I can very easily see if it’s something that I enjoy, or that makes me curious to read more without having to commit to reading an entire volume to understand what’s happening.

As a non-poetry reader, I don’t feel qualified to agree or disagree with critics on the matter. What I will say is that short-form poetry still seems like valid poetry to me. Haiku’s are regarded as a beautiful form of poetry, and they are usually very short. Of course, there are a lot of rules around the structure of a Haiku, but that aside, I think that just because something is short, it doesn’t make it less worthy or meaningful.

Have you read any instapoetry, and if so, what are your favourite authors/poems/collections?

I have not read any ‘instapoetry’, though I have occasionally stumbled across some of Rupi Kaur’s in the wilds of Instagram before!

For the sake of this post I did have a browse, and found a few that I might be interested in reading one day. Poetry is a genre I would like to explore, though the collections I actually have on my tbr are not ‘instapoetry’ like the below choices.

You Tell Me: Do you enjoy poetry?