the way you described the poetry as 'lazy poetry' is so accurate, i think the reason it works so well is because readers (aka ppl randomly scrolling thru instagram) are also lazy readers in a sense, like they're not really interested in spending any extra time analyzing or figuring out what the poet is trying to show so its like a perfect match in a way
"Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day" is also Shakespeare's response to contemporary poets overusing the same comparisons (as you mention starlight). Metaphysical poets came up with creative and even strange comparisons as their responses to earlier cliches such as eyes like pools of blue water and lips like roses. John Donne compares his wife to a compass (sorta like what we used in geometry in high school). Love what you're doing here! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Simi!
The internet has given poets like Rupi Kaur a veil of authenticity. If not for the internet I doubt if these poets would be enjoying the success they have now. Their work is shallow at best but their platform is extremely powerful. There is a market for cheap clothes, cheap cars, cheap housing, and now, thanks to the internet, there is a market for cheap poetry.
She’s a dark sneaky turd who changed when The Media targeted girls. She’s a two forked tongue 🐍….. using faux explosive 🧨 stream of consciousness to TARGET 🎯 (her lil’ store) your gen and younger to get dark deep and lost. There is this faux theme about nature and respecting her parents .. then her snorkel is and normalizing hiding in her house for a year. But you start ti realize there’s no hope or depth or GROWTH based on ACCEPTANCE. I found the first one relatable too. Then I recently read the 2nd one again and then the last. “Milk and Honey” is an attack on the dream of having a dream. It’s a squashing of hoping for that brighter future, that new day, that real love. She becomes a trivial trapped and literal angry demon. She devours what’s left here. She’s a devil on scorched Earth. She succeeded in the West and has it all and has chosen to spread fear and suicidal ideation as the end of it all. Watch her smile as she reads milk and honey in a demonic balenciaga type 🩸 blood sucking “smirking” lilt.
She’s satanic. She is not faithful. Our Western world is built on the Judea Christian concept (NOT saying you have to be a certain religion) but on they common recognize value in the connectivity and compassion and understanding of our pain and dreams as different but a COLLECTIVE reason for aspiring to accept difference and not be a selfish whiner?
@@rievans57 I think more accurate could be inspirational sayings. Some is poetry and some isnt poetry at all. It like comparing stand up comedy vs quirky humour. for example "what does a fork lift? Usually food". Its funny it is still humour but the techniques used is minimum. You wont think its good enough for stand up comedy. But if it was book in a book with similar style humour and called a book of humor and comedy no one would complain. People just grown up to know poetry from a very high standard only.
Your hair is winter fire January embers My heart burns there, too. - Stephen King It’s a haiku (Japanese poem) on “It” novel. I can’t believe that a horror book have better poem than Rupi Kaur’s entire career and those other Insta-“poets”. Randomly dividing words does not mean that it is poem, it is just an instagram caption.
TBF, songwriters and poets have been talking about those things for centuries. They aren't bad as long as you don't overuse them or use them in bad/cliched ways.
What I like most about this is that you're a woman of color, because every time I voice my opinion on my writing blog about Rupi, I get told my opinion is racist and classist. This is funny because I'm Asian too. What's racist is assuming that people of color can't or shoudn't write English well. Lang Leav criticizes her critics all the time for this too. I'm so tired of hearing that grammar is classist or ableist. Editors are available to you when you're being published by a major publishing company like Adrews Mcmeel. Also, grammar is not strictly white, nor does it only pertain to English writing. I don't know where this idea comes from that people should just be able to write sloppily. Creative writing is a skill, and it should take effort. Atticus, R.H. Sin, and Amanda Lovelace are also TERRIBLE! I hate all the lazy, minimalist writing happening right now. The worst is preachy, self-help style poetry that just reads like a manual. Also, it shouldn't just be a given that if you're influential (Orion Carloto), you should be able to publish a book without a care in the world about writing techniques. Release a novel or stick to posting pretty photos and selfies on your blog. Leave poetry to serious poets.
agreed! there are plenty of poets of color who do amazingly creative work but they get overshadowed because you have to actually engage with their writing
Poets have always borrowed thoughts of others, it is not appropriating another culture. if not don't write in English. While we may deviate in grammar with a purpose, poor grammar is just that.
I do agree with you. As for Rupi Kaur, the fact that her personal experiences were so traumatic, she could've made her work so much better by adding more than merely 'stating' what happened. Personally, I feel she missed the chance to fully express how she felt in those situations. I like how you analyzed these poems, well done! 😊
I don't own her book, I decided not to buy it after so many serious poetry lovers reviewed it on YT, but someone commented that in the introduction to "milk and honey" Rupi said that some of it she writes about is about other women's experiences, not her own. I was susspecting that as her poems are not very deep. So there you go. She rides the wrong wave, the one she shouldn't be on.
As a writer myself, I personally believe that a lot the poems you have read out aren’t actually poems. They are just thoughts translated into phrases with a metaphor attached to them. Definitely lazy in my book. Great video by the way 😀
I’m late but let me try my instapoetry “Many suns from far away galaxies, Their light brings forth a trillion fallacies, Your love is a beautiful swirl birthed like one of these dying spirals of effulgence, Our love is a dead galaxy; bright and beautiful but lacking all refulgence.”
Aaah thank you for putting this into words! I call it sentence-poetry because it’s like the author wrote down a thought, went “oh that’s deep”, changed the spacing/formatting and then published it. And I agree, it’s so frustrating to read about the same cliches all the time and how it’s supposed to be deep but the authors are splashing around in the kiddie pool. Like, dive off the deep end 🤷🏻♀️ Anyways, I really love your literary analysis videos because they deepen my love for literature and how much work goes into creating it 💖 Looking forward to your next one!
basically I agree with everything you said. Instapoetry just feels like a first draft and like there was not enough intentional word choice going on, or it just feels clumsy while trying to say an important message. Like the Lovelace excerpt you used, it was fine but the ending line made it feel very clunky and like something that should have been reworked. Also just as a whole short sentences/fragments as poems is a HARD artform, it is not as easy as instapoets think it is because like you said it just come off as repetitive and not original or new. Just very basic poetry that hasn't been revised.
I love your perspective. I would probably be classified somewhat within the instapoet category. There are some gems within the genre but it definitely isn't everyone's cup of tea. I think you've brilliantly dissected these pieces fairly. Enjoyed it.
Simi, THANK GOD. You have restored my faith in your generation a little. Make it your mission to remain a critical thinker and convert the bubble wrapped sheep to real critical thinking poetry. The sewage that Atticus and Rupi spew is fast food fodder not even worthy for a dollar store greeting card for a funeral...
I'm the kind that spends weeks editing and crafting just one poem, struggling with coming to terms with the language I chose to use and it kinda disappoints me that people writing just three lines of a normal sentence find a lot of success. I wish I had the same self-confidence rupi kaur has to publish something so half assed.
Simi, this is beautifully and perfectly analysed. I agree with your points, that some works written by most 'insta-poets' sound so lazy and looked more like a first draft rather than the revised-final product--- which minimises the emotions from the piece's meaning completely, making it sounds so shallow and 'meh' like. Thank you for creating this video, your analysis widens my perspective and thought process should I write more poetry pieces from now on. Love from Indonesia xx
I saw you have the clockwork series in your bookshelf, and just want to say that I absolutely love that series! Also I came across you while searching for poetry reviews and I think you are doing a veryfine job with your channel. I rarely come across smaller channels so I got excited and interested in what you had to say.
Although great poetry is diverse, there are some undeniable features. The first is an absence of cliches/platitudes. If there are seeming cliches, they're subverted (immersed as they are in strange contexts), such that they're no longer cliches. The second is surprising metaphors/images/associations. The third is depth, ambiguity - which allows for multiple interpretations. If the poem can be entirely understood after a first glance or reading, it's probably not worth much. (Note: ambiguity is NOT the same thing as obscurity which in many cases is a defect.) The fourth is a unique or unmistakable style. If you read Emily Dickinson, you can see that nobody else writes like her (assuming you're well read). The fifth is technical and artistic mastery (or near-mastery): no word is out of place, the expressions are concise yet the poem's well developed, and the highest accomplishments SEEM effortless. (Just consider Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening".) If you detect labor in the poem, a sense of striving, it may be a decent work, but far from great. A rich and hypnotic type of music is certainly desirable, though not in all cases appropriate - depending on the subject matter. Extremely important is memorable lapidary language. One mistake a lot of aspiring poets make (including seasoned academics who've won awards) is that they're far too attached to their own views/beliefs; there's no distance between what they believe and the "poetic expression". (Which is why, for example, so many political and religious poems flounder, devoid of artistic merit.) There's no room for ambiguity or layers: we simply have the personal view/belief of the poet expressed. It often winds up sounding like a rant or form of propaganda. Deadly is the poet's commitment to what he/she considers "truth" because too much insistence on that winds up sounding dogmatic and stifles word-play and the imagination. Whatever depth is reached in the poem is reached indirectly, suggestively (usually), though direct statements can be powerful, with good timing. Now ask yourself: Do any of the Instagram poets fulfill even one of these criteria? On a general note, it's important to remember that intent means nothing in poetry: the poet may mean well, the subject matter may be "relatable", but that doesn't make it worthwhile poetry. Just because a reader is moved by a "poem" or finds it "relatable", it doesn't follow that it has merit. How so? Here's an example. I may be moved by a poem about a cow because it brings back nice childhood memories . The poem triggers nostalgia. Yet when it's examined carefully, one sees cliches; it lacks depth, which is to say that it doesn't lend itself to multiple interpretations. It's lame and pedestrian. So one's experience of nostalgia nonetheless has nothing to do with the artistic value of the poem. Or another poem may confirm in the reader a worldview or belief which itself is wholly unoriginal, lame, pedestrian, and that confirmation makes the reader "bond" with the writer. That's why being moved by a work in itself is insufficient; one must have read a lot of great poetry to get a sense of what's imaginatively possible. More often than not, deciding whether a poem is truly excellent requires an educated sensibility.
They write in common way everyone is not english major Those great poet umm not everyone understand them what they want to try to sayyyy 😀 Poetry also should be relatable and understanding bit
I've been a fan of Billy Collins for a long time and back in undergrad a friend just didn't get it, saying but his language is so simple and that it's lazy poetry. But it really isn't and since then he's the one I use to illustrate that simplicity in not the same as laziness. And relatability doesn't necessarily make for a bad poem even though it's often a common denominator in insta poems. A good comparison here is his Thesaurus, which starts by just playing with the word, then listing synonyms, collecting words, illustrating the eponymous beast, alluding to the same sort of love for collecting words as Lovelace's poem. But it's done in a clever, not so obvious way. And the tempo changes. The synonyms run, they are cool but unimportant, the lightning round of a brilliant display of a lover of words. But in the end, you slow down, the poem slows down and makes you think about poetry and what it means to create poetry. And it's just a beautiful way of doing this. So simple but so clever and effective. Other poems of his are seemingly just anecdotes but there is something there that we see in a way we might not have seen before. Or it *is* relatable but the way he arrives at relatability is convoluted in an engaging way. There is a love for humanity and humor and language and it affects me in most of his poems.
When you read Atticus's "poem" I just need you and some sunset I felt so disappointed. Never in my life, I have felt so much disappointment. What was that?
A vague, rather useless attempt at societal greatness. And now this type of writing is becoming the norm around the US. These people should just do watercolor paintings and just write the damn words onto the canvas, instead compiling this overhyped crap into 60pg books that can be Frisbees.
Hi! I am a poet and a writer. I agree that most of these works seem like first drafts; it seems to me that they had a thought, wrote it down, and never reflected more on it. Which I think is counterproductive for poetry. Further reflection on the themed and the poem itself can't hurt anyone. I learnt a lot from your video. Just a word of advice: your audio seems pretty off. Your voice is pretty low while everything else is on a normal volume. Anyway, it's nice to see someone so passionate about literature. Keep up the good work!
Can you make a video of your favorite poetry books? I want to read more poetry this year. The first few I read were me unknowingly stumbling into instapoetry. I’m not sure how to find good poetry. I did add a Matthew Arnold & Maya Angelou book to my list after this video but I’d love to hear more of your suggestions.
What I think would be cool is if somebody took a cliche and turned it into a poem. Here's my attempt: _Packed Like Sardines_ I joined the line with the rest of the sardines We packed ourselves in the tin in a neat single file. We steam cooked in that can because the bus a/c was busted. In spite of the misery I smiled as I looked around. My fellow sardines held their fins and sunglasses in hand. Some even brought newspaper in which to wrap themselves. We all wore smiles as the can rolled down the road because we sardines are heading back to the ocean.
Stop 😭 I bought an Atticus book cause I was intrigued by the fact that it was annotated. There were some writings I liked, but other than that it was ok. I’ve never read Rupi Kaur except from posts or things I’ve seen. I am a writer myself and will be releasing my first book soon.. Part of me hopes it doesn’t come across something like Milk & Honey (though I have used comparisons to these things, including the galaxy or nature. 😷) Could you recommend some of your favorite poetry books so I could learn more about real poetry? Thank you! :)
Well, what do you think about Orion Carlotta's so called poetry that is more like quotes and appear half finished? She has two, or I don't know maybe three published books? Her aesthetic is more the intention.
The criticism of the Insta poets is similar to the criticisms I have of Taylor Swift's lyricism. People falling over themselves over her "genius" is something I just do not understand.
Below is one of my popular poems. I am a well educated frequently published, awarded poet, and recently nominated for Best of The Net for 2020. The poem is from my upcoming book "Thoughtful Matter," coming to Amazon today. A Letter To A Lost Valuable I am back on Portobello Road where you said you would marry me regardless if the first thing I share with you every day is sketches of myself in gloomy narratives like those figures I have seen in the lounges of nursing homes after dinner and those sitting among the valuables of a relative they prayed would never pass while they were still fully grasping their heart Sometimes I daydream those afternoons I met you near the flowers that hang down near the wall on Portobello Road I remember you called a bunch of them candions and some you gave a different name every time you saw them I can remember once as we shared a bottle of chilled homemade lemonade on Portobello Road you said if someone ever saw a bluebird fly in the morning sunshine and then on the same day on Portobello Road if they kissed someone with slick sweet lips and their heart sober they would forever share a heart one can not just look beyond because it would be a heart--- a torch moving through the distant darkness of a high wooded area I wonder now if I should have just kissed you there to see what would happen perhaps then I would have never had to feel that in different ways I had to convince you the mature part of my heart was just as much in it too Sometimes I wonder if you would still be here with me if I kissed you there that day we stood in the shredded grass with a couple of restless candion petals just after you turned your head towards mine because a bee wouldn't stay out of your face ------------------------------------------------- Buy my book on the craft of poetry As a PDF file for $2 facebook.com/writervictoriahunter/posts/1792587860907524
Stream of consciousness is cool, just look at surrealist school of poetry and automatic writing. But she doesn't have symbolic potential in her's. It's redundant and without any stylistic provocation.
also when she says "weakness to fall" just because you are dealing with hardships and grief, doesnt make you weak. In my opinion yes, grief makes you stronger but I just dont think weak is the right word.
AN ODE TO THE MOON I am roaming the emptiness of the desert. The moon's rotund fullness hangs in the void of the heavens, Mid-way to the unseen horizon in the East. The moon threatens to plummet into the desert floor, Yet it maintains its oversight above its dominion. The dulcet tones of the moon's milky-white soothe me, But it is not my body they charm, They pierce the ramparts to an unfathomable chamber in the bedrock of my soul. And I feel a joy not confined to the borders of my flesh. It is a joy emanating from deep within me, And yet it belongs to us all. And then I ask: Why is it that the sun's strong light exposes my body, Yet the moon's milky-white exposes my soul? I am peeking between two almost kissing cliffs. I still my mind and then I see the snail's pace of the moon, As it peeks at me behind the West cliff on its mission across the sky. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, the moon's sliver advances past the cliff's edge, And widens until it once more appears in all its rotund glory, As it falls to the other side. When the moon's edge reaches the other cliff it hides again, Until once more I only see its thin sliver, And then it is beyond my sight. When the moon reveals this subtle dance to mine own eyes, I feel an intimacy with it that no book can offer, No teacher can teach. On this night, the crescent moon floods the recesses of my soul with its pale milky glow, And a mystical silence envelops the desert's void. On other nights, in other places, the silence would be dulled by a crying baby, while her mother sings a lullaby, Or in the desert by the plaintive shriek of an anonymous wind, As it hurtles across the desert floor, To lands beyond horizon's reach. But on this night, the silence is absolute, And it comforts me like a blanket comforts a child.
No there are many amazing poems out there that don't rhyme at all. But that's not to say either that rhyming poetry is bad or childish but the typical forms that have rhyming schemes are no longer popular among contemporary poets.
In the middle of the night she woke up Like a lost lamb crawled back to me Into my arms Without alarm Gentle heart rested upon its make shift pillow I looked down upon you like the leaves of a willow Though you slept and surly would have danced and leapt In the theatre of your head I laid there listening to you Not wanting to miss a single moment as I watched over you as you slept
i sacrificed my dignity so i can write shit plattitudes with attitudes and line breaks to make it look poetic and deep as crimson as the period blood on my instagram pic be cool stay in school -- rupi kaur
"Dover Beach" is an excellent poem. Good choice. I'm afraid I can't agree with you concerning Maya Angelou. While she wasn't a terrible poet (at her best), she was still pretty bad.
Given the following these accounts have people obviously like it. For me instapoetry is accessible to a wider audience. I feel that traditional poetry has excluded me and turned me away. When speaking with others many feel the same, and that is why poetry is not widely liked by us non English majors. Also I dont think its fair to call anyone's work lazy. This is why I always hated having to talk about books in English classes growing up because writing is SO subjective. We all can read the same thing and all have different thoughts and opinions. That is why I always try and not say anyone's work is bad, just not for me. Insta poetry just isn't for you, but its not lazy or bad.
A LOOP IN ETERNITY The desert is a study of dueling extremes. The day's heat wrestles night's impending chill, Yet there is no victor, The pendulum forever swings. During a summer's midday the desert smolders like the ashes of a freshly extinguished bonfire. The air is thick as honey, And the heat envelopes and coddles your soul, Yet ravages your flesh. Your skin must be completely veiled from the burning sun by a thin layer of porous fabric. Any exposed skin on your face vibrates like the water in a pot just before the boil. But once the sun sets, the temperature plummets. Soon the chill of night persecutes the heat of day. But for a fleeting moment, as day's dominion gives way to night's control, The two eternal foes become locked in a titanic struggle and neither surrenders. It is during that ephemeral moment, a semantic space pregnant with transition, That the desert is neither hot nor cold, Neither this nor that. And yet during that fleeting moment, the desert is all those things in one, Yet not one of those things in all. Inevitably the chill overpowers desert's heat, and the titanic struggle is no more. The heat of day becomes legend's lore, But surely will return once more. For now, the night chill is unbound and free to roam. A man not protected from the desert's chill of night can die from extended exposure. The first symptom is a numbing of his extremities. His fingers first and then his nose become insensitive to touch. The mighty desert wind slams against his naked flesh, And it soon feels more like the burn of fire than the chill of ice. Such can be the desert at night.
Ok. So When I see ALL the videos on RUclips about this crap it makes me sad that it getting so much attention. I will say one thing. They got them published. I would love to get published. I have been writing on and off for years but don’t know where or what to with my poems?? They are not instapoetry and are very personal. But it’s time. Any advise??
Kaur's work sounds like diary notes. Yes, like stream of consciousness. Not, subjectively, poetry. I'm not going to agree with your statement: poetry is ALL about showing. Poetry is about balance between many things: latinate and Anglo-Saxon, high and low, abstract and concrete, iambs and a trochee, and, yes, showing and telling. In my opinion.
Sylvia Plath And YES Toni Morrison “I RISE” Shakespeare Yeats Kerouac Hunter Thompson Emily Dickinson Edna St. Vincent Millay There is stanza there is channeled romantic love and grief and appreciation for things and people and experiences This me me me me - I’m this - this self actualization and inability to drawn on or from history or music or things with reverence that are the spark of God in YOU. These kids. They haven’t read anything!!! They are brands and and branded and I am sad. Hahah. All about stars and their hipster “home” libraries color coded. None of these women can get outside of their own days?
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the way you described the poetry as 'lazy poetry' is so accurate, i think the reason it works so well is because readers (aka ppl randomly scrolling thru instagram) are also lazy readers in a sense, like they're not really interested in spending any extra time analyzing or figuring out what the poet is trying to show
so its like a perfect match in a way
I agree! I think that’s part of the draw. Insta poetry- for all its flaws- does have a strong audience and that’s why it works and gains popularity
"Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day" is also Shakespeare's response to contemporary poets overusing the same comparisons (as you mention starlight). Metaphysical poets came up with creative and even strange comparisons as their responses to earlier cliches such as eyes like pools of blue water and lips like roses. John Donne compares his wife to a compass (sorta like what we used in geometry in high school). Love what you're doing here! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Simi!
The internet has given poets like Rupi Kaur a veil of authenticity. If not for the internet I doubt if these poets would be enjoying the success they have now. Their work is shallow at best but their platform is extremely powerful. There is a market for cheap clothes, cheap cars, cheap housing, and now, thanks to the internet, there is a market for cheap poetry.
She’s a dark sneaky turd who changed when The Media targeted girls. She’s a two forked tongue 🐍….. using faux explosive 🧨 stream of consciousness to TARGET 🎯 (her lil’ store) your gen and younger to get dark deep and lost. There is this faux theme about nature and respecting her parents .. then her snorkel is and normalizing hiding in her house for a year.
But you start ti realize there’s no hope or depth or GROWTH based on ACCEPTANCE.
I found the first one relatable too. Then I recently read the 2nd one again and then the last.
“Milk and Honey” is an attack on the dream of having a dream. It’s a squashing of hoping for that brighter future, that new day, that real love.
She becomes a trivial trapped and literal angry demon. She devours what’s left here. She’s a devil on scorched Earth. She succeeded in the West and has it all and has chosen to spread fear and suicidal ideation as the end of it all.
Watch her smile as she reads milk and honey in a demonic balenciaga type 🩸 blood sucking “smirking” lilt.
She’s satanic. She is not faithful. Our Western world is built on the Judea Christian concept (NOT saying you have to be a certain religion) but on they common recognize value in the connectivity and compassion and understanding of our pain and dreams as different but a COLLECTIVE reason
for aspiring to accept difference and not be a selfish whiner?
These types of works have always been popular since chainmails. It that sort of stuff people like to share.
@@2DarkHorizon is it poetry? Good or bad poetry?
@@rievans57 I think more accurate could be inspirational sayings. Some is poetry and some isnt poetry at all. It like comparing stand up comedy vs quirky humour. for example "what does a fork lift? Usually food". Its funny it is still humour but the techniques used is minimum. You wont think its good enough for stand up comedy. But if it was book in a book with similar style humour and called a book of humor and comedy no one would complain. People just grown up to know poetry from a very high standard only.
Your hair is winter fire
January embers
My heart burns there, too.
- Stephen King
It’s a haiku (Japanese poem) on “It” novel.
I can’t believe that a horror book have better poem than Rupi Kaur’s entire career and those other Insta-“poets”.
Randomly
dividing words does
not mean that it
is poem,
it is just an
instagram caption.
Love Stephen King!
@@DanLyndon LMAO, that’s the point of this joke comment 😂 Even Stephen King’s haiku is better than overrated “prose” book.
Completely agree with you--enjambment alone doesn't make something a (good) poem.
@@DanLyndon Stephen is the KING. The KING!!!!
@@DanLyndon That's not a haiku; there are 6 syllables in the first two lines.
"the obsession that these insta poets have with stars and the moon"
and don't forget the seas/oceans too
*glares at Robert M. Drake*
TBF, songwriters and poets have been talking about those things for centuries. They aren't bad as long as you don't overuse them or use them in bad/cliched ways.
What I like most about this is that you're a woman of color, because every time I voice my opinion on my writing blog about Rupi, I get told my opinion is racist and classist. This is funny because I'm Asian too. What's racist is assuming that people of color can't or shoudn't write English well. Lang Leav criticizes her critics all the time for this too. I'm so tired of hearing that grammar is classist or ableist. Editors are available to you when you're being published by a major publishing company like Adrews Mcmeel. Also, grammar is not strictly white, nor does it only pertain to English writing. I don't know where this idea comes from that people should just be able to write sloppily. Creative writing is a skill, and it should take effort. Atticus, R.H. Sin, and Amanda Lovelace are also TERRIBLE! I hate all the lazy, minimalist writing happening right now. The worst is preachy, self-help style poetry that just reads like a manual. Also, it shouldn't just be a given that if you're influential (Orion Carloto), you should be able to publish a book without a care in the world about writing techniques. Release a novel or stick to posting pretty photos and selfies on your blog. Leave poetry to serious poets.
minimalist can be good if it's done well though. But i completely agree with you.
agreed! there are plenty of poets of color who do amazingly creative work but they get overshadowed because you have to actually engage with their writing
Poets have always borrowed thoughts of others, it is not appropriating another culture. if not don't write in English. While we may deviate in grammar with a purpose, poor grammar is just that.
I do agree with you. As for Rupi Kaur, the fact that her personal experiences were so traumatic, she could've made her work so much better by adding more than merely 'stating' what happened. Personally, I feel she missed the chance to fully express how she felt in those situations.
I like how you analyzed these poems, well done! 😊
I agree. I didn't even consider about her adding how she felt. You're right, that would've been so much better.
I don't own her book, I decided not to buy it after so many serious poetry lovers reviewed it on YT, but someone commented that in the introduction to "milk and honey" Rupi said that some of it she writes about is about other women's experiences, not her own. I was susspecting that as her poems are not very deep. So there you go. She rides the wrong wave, the one she shouldn't be on.
As a writer myself, I personally believe that a lot the poems you have read out aren’t actually poems. They are just thoughts translated into phrases with a metaphor attached to them. Definitely lazy in my book. Great video by the way 😀
Than what is poetry? I hate how people say that “this is is not poetry!” And “that is not poetry!” Because poetry is really anything you want it to be
This was insightful as a writer, and right on point with the comparisons. Glad I came across your channel, thank you!!
I’m an English Major too and when I read Atticus’ poems I.... threw up. Subbing lmfao.
I’m late but let me try my instapoetry
“Many suns from far away galaxies,
Their light brings forth a trillion fallacies,
Your love is a beautiful swirl birthed like one of these dying spirals of effulgence,
Our love is a dead galaxy; bright and beautiful but lacking all refulgence.”
Okay but that’s actually better than most insta poetry 😂
Aaah thank you for putting this into words! I call it sentence-poetry because it’s like the author wrote down a thought, went “oh that’s deep”, changed the spacing/formatting and then published it. And I agree, it’s so frustrating to read about the same cliches all the time and how it’s supposed to be deep but the authors are splashing around in the kiddie pool. Like, dive off the deep end 🤷🏻♀️ Anyways, I really love your literary analysis videos because they deepen my love for literature and how much work goes into creating it 💖 Looking forward to your next one!
basically I agree with everything you said. Instapoetry just feels like a first draft and like there was not enough intentional word choice going on, or it just feels clumsy while trying to say an important message. Like the Lovelace excerpt you used, it was fine but the ending line made it feel very clunky and like something that should have been reworked.
Also just as a whole short sentences/fragments as poems is a HARD artform, it is not as easy as instapoets think it is because like you said it just come off as repetitive and not original or new. Just very basic poetry that hasn't been revised.
I love your perspective. I would probably be classified somewhat within the instapoet category. There are some gems within the genre but it definitely isn't everyone's cup of tea. I think you've brilliantly dissected these pieces fairly. Enjoyed it.
Your critique was is construtive and focused, it makes me want to take fresh look at my own writing with your comments in mind. Thank you!
Simi, THANK GOD. You have restored my faith in your generation a little. Make it your mission to remain a critical thinker and convert the bubble wrapped sheep to real critical thinking poetry. The sewage that Atticus and Rupi spew is fast food fodder not even worthy for a dollar store greeting card for a funeral...
I'm the kind that spends weeks editing and crafting just one poem, struggling with coming to terms with the language I chose to use and it kinda disappoints me that people writing just three lines of a normal sentence find a lot of success. I wish I had the same self-confidence rupi kaur has to publish something so half assed.
Yes, I know what you mean! I write poetry too.
Simi, this is beautifully and perfectly analysed. I agree with your points, that some works written by most 'insta-poets' sound so lazy and looked more like a first draft rather than the revised-final product--- which minimises the emotions from the piece's meaning completely, making it sounds so shallow and 'meh' like. Thank you for creating this video, your analysis widens my perspective and thought process should I write more poetry pieces from now on. Love from Indonesia xx
You are definitely right, insta poetry most of them are statement slap dash
I saw you have the clockwork series in your bookshelf, and just want to say that I absolutely love that series! Also I came across you while searching for poetry reviews and I think you are doing a veryfine job with your channel. I rarely come across smaller channels so I got excited and interested in what you had to say.
Although great poetry is diverse, there are some
undeniable features. The first is an absence of cliches/platitudes. If
there are seeming cliches, they're subverted (immersed as they are in
strange contexts), such that they're no longer cliches. The second is
surprising metaphors/images/associations. The third is depth, ambiguity -
which allows for multiple interpretations. If the poem can be entirely
understood after a first glance or reading, it's probably not worth
much. (Note: ambiguity is NOT the same thing as obscurity which in many
cases is a defect.) The fourth is a unique or unmistakable style. If
you read Emily Dickinson, you can see that nobody else writes like her
(assuming you're well read). The fifth is technical and artistic mastery
(or near-mastery): no word is out of place, the expressions are concise
yet the poem's well developed, and the highest accomplishments SEEM
effortless. (Just consider Robert Frost's "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy
Evening".) If you detect labor in the poem, a sense of striving, it may
be a decent work, but far from great. A rich and hypnotic type of music
is certainly desirable, though not in all cases appropriate - depending
on the subject matter. Extremely important is memorable lapidary
language. One mistake a lot of aspiring poets make (including seasoned
academics who've won awards) is that they're far too attached to their
own views/beliefs; there's no distance between what they believe and the
"poetic expression". (Which is why, for example, so many political and
religious poems flounder, devoid of artistic merit.) There's no room
for ambiguity or layers: we simply have the personal view/belief of the
poet expressed. It often winds up sounding like a rant or form of
propaganda. Deadly is the poet's commitment to what he/she considers
"truth" because too much insistence on that winds up sounding dogmatic
and stifles word-play and the imagination. Whatever depth is reached in
the poem is reached indirectly, suggestively (usually), though direct
statements can be powerful, with good timing. Now ask yourself: Do any of the Instagram poets
fulfill even one of these criteria?
On a general note, it's important to remember that intent means nothing in poetry: the poet may mean well, the subject matter may be "relatable", but that doesn't make it worthwhile poetry. Just because a reader is moved by a "poem" or finds it "relatable", it doesn't follow that it has merit. How so? Here's an example. I may be moved by a poem about a cow because it brings back nice childhood memories . The poem triggers nostalgia. Yet when it's examined carefully, one sees cliches; it lacks depth, which is to say that it doesn't lend itself to multiple interpretations. It's lame and pedestrian. So one's experience of nostalgia nonetheless has nothing to do with the artistic value of the poem. Or another poem may confirm in the reader a worldview or belief which itself is wholly unoriginal, lame, pedestrian, and that confirmation makes the reader "bond" with the writer. That's why being moved by a work in itself is insufficient; one must have read a lot of great poetry to get a sense of what's imaginatively possible. More often than not, deciding whether a poem is truly excellent requires an educated sensibility.
They write in common way everyone is not english major
Those great poet umm not everyone understand them what they want to try to sayyyy
😀
Poetry also should be relatable and understanding bit
John Keats and Robert Frost died a second time with this instapoetry trend.
I've been a fan of Billy Collins for a long time and back in undergrad a friend just didn't get it, saying but his language is so simple and that it's lazy poetry. But it really isn't and since then he's the one I use to illustrate that simplicity in not the same as laziness. And relatability doesn't necessarily make for a bad poem even though it's often a common denominator in insta poems.
A good comparison here is his Thesaurus, which starts by just playing with the word, then listing synonyms, collecting words, illustrating the eponymous beast, alluding to the same sort of love for collecting words as Lovelace's poem. But it's done in a clever, not so obvious way. And the tempo changes. The synonyms run, they are cool but unimportant, the lightning round of a brilliant display of a lover of words. But in the end, you slow down, the poem slows down and makes you think about poetry and what it means to create poetry. And it's just a beautiful way of doing this. So simple but so clever and effective.
Other poems of his are seemingly just anecdotes but there is something there that we see in a way we might not have seen before. Or it *is* relatable but the way he arrives at relatability is convoluted in an engaging way. There is a love for humanity and humor and language and it affects me in most of his poems.
When you read Atticus's "poem" I just need you and some sunset I felt so disappointed. Never in my life, I have felt so much disappointment.
What was that?
Megha Saboo 😂😂😂
A vague, rather useless attempt at societal greatness.
And now this type of writing is becoming the norm around the US.
These people should just do watercolor paintings and just write the damn words onto the canvas, instead compiling this overhyped crap into 60pg books that can be Frisbees.
Hi! I am a poet and a writer. I agree that most of these works seem like first drafts; it seems to me that they had a thought, wrote it down, and never reflected more on it. Which I think is counterproductive for poetry. Further reflection on the themed and the poem itself can't hurt anyone. I learnt a lot from your video.
Just a word of advice: your audio seems pretty off. Your voice is pretty low while everything else is on a normal volume.
Anyway, it's nice to see someone so passionate about literature. Keep up the good work!
Can you make a video of your favorite poetry books? I want to read more poetry this year. The first few I read were me unknowingly stumbling into instapoetry. I’m not sure how to find good poetry. I did add a Matthew Arnold & Maya Angelou book to my list after this video but I’d love to hear more of your suggestions.
Rupi Kaur = popcorn poetry
I love your channel, so glad I found this
What I think would be cool is if somebody took a cliche and turned it into a poem. Here's my attempt:
_Packed Like Sardines_
I joined the line with the rest of the sardines
We packed ourselves in the tin in a neat single file.
We steam cooked in that can because the bus a/c was busted.
In spite of the misery I smiled as I looked around.
My fellow sardines held their fins and sunglasses in hand.
Some even brought newspaper in which to wrap themselves.
We all wore smiles as the can rolled down the road
because we sardines are heading back to the ocean.
Give up your day job.
Read Elegy of a Teenage Melodrama. It has been the best poetry collection I have read this year!
Stop 😭 I bought an Atticus book cause I was intrigued by the fact that it was annotated. There were some writings I liked, but other than that it was ok. I’ve never read Rupi Kaur except from posts or things I’ve seen.
I am a writer myself and will be releasing my first book soon.. Part of me hopes it doesn’t come across something like Milk & Honey (though I have used comparisons to these things, including the galaxy or nature. 😷)
Could you recommend some of your favorite poetry books so I could learn more about real poetry? Thank you! :)
I love Sylvia Plath. Definitely check her out.💙❤️
Well, what do you think about Orion Carlotta's so called poetry that is more like quotes and appear half finished? She has two, or I don't know maybe three published books? Her aesthetic is more the intention.
Poems by people who don’t really like to write for people who don’t really like to read.
ayoo I was sold on listening within the first 5 sec. I started laughing
Thanks for the video.
The criticism of the Insta poets is similar to the criticisms I have of Taylor Swift's lyricism. People falling over themselves over her "genius" is something I just do not understand.
Below is one of my popular poems. I am a well educated frequently published, awarded poet, and recently nominated for Best of The Net for 2020. The poem is from my upcoming book "Thoughtful Matter," coming to Amazon today.
A Letter To A Lost Valuable
I am back on Portobello Road
where you said you would marry me regardless
if the first thing I share with you every day
is sketches of myself in gloomy narratives
like those figures I have seen in the lounges
of nursing homes after dinner
and those sitting among the valuables of a relative
they prayed would never pass
while they were still fully grasping their heart
Sometimes I daydream those afternoons I met you
near the flowers that hang down
near the wall on Portobello Road
I remember you called a bunch of them candions
and some you gave a different name
every time you saw them
I can remember once as we shared a bottle
of chilled homemade lemonade on Portobello Road
you said if someone ever saw
a bluebird fly in the morning sunshine
and then on the same day on Portobello Road
if they kissed someone
with slick sweet lips and their heart sober
they would forever share a heart
one can not just look beyond
because it would be a heart--- a torch
moving through the distant darkness of a high wooded area
I wonder now if I should have just kissed you there
to see what would happen
perhaps then I would have never had to feel that in different ways
I had to convince you
the mature part of my heart was just as much in it too
Sometimes I wonder if you would still be here with me
if I kissed you there that day we stood in the shredded grass
with a couple of restless candion petals
just after you turned your head towards mine
because a bee wouldn't stay out of your face
-------------------------------------------------
Buy my book on the craft of poetry As a PDF file for $2
facebook.com/writervictoriahunter/posts/1792587860907524
Stream of consciousness is cool, just look at surrealist school of poetry and automatic writing. But she doesn't have symbolic potential in her's. It's redundant and without any stylistic provocation.
Poetry is experience: it’s often not appreciated until their dead. Sorry millennials. Dead naming! LOFL
Never think you've reached the bottom of the hole. There's always a way to dig deeper.
Music is poetry. And this gens is similar.
also when she says "weakness to fall" just because you are dealing with hardships and grief, doesnt make you weak. In my opinion yes, grief makes you stronger but I just dont think weak is the right word.
Poetry is subjective and in the eye of the beholder... I agree it's lazy and personally I'm not a fan... it still counts as poetry though @apspoetry
AN ODE TO THE MOON
I am roaming the emptiness of the desert.
The moon's rotund fullness hangs in the void of the heavens,
Mid-way to the unseen horizon in the East.
The moon threatens to plummet into the desert floor,
Yet it maintains its oversight above its dominion.
The dulcet tones of the moon's milky-white soothe me,
But it is not my body they charm,
They pierce the ramparts to an unfathomable chamber in the bedrock of my soul.
And I feel a joy not confined to the borders of my flesh.
It is a joy emanating from deep within me,
And yet it belongs to us all.
And then I ask: Why is it that the sun's strong light exposes my body,
Yet the moon's milky-white exposes my soul?
I am peeking between two almost kissing cliffs.
I still my mind and then I see the snail's pace of the moon,
As it peeks at me behind the West cliff on its mission across the sky.
Gradually, almost imperceptibly, the moon's sliver advances past the cliff's edge,
And widens until it once more appears in all its rotund glory,
As it falls to the other side.
When the moon's edge reaches the other cliff it hides again,
Until once more I only see its thin sliver,
And then it is beyond my sight.
When the moon reveals this subtle dance to mine own eyes,
I feel an intimacy with it that no book can offer,
No teacher can teach.
On this night, the crescent moon floods the recesses of my soul with its pale milky glow,
And a mystical silence envelops the desert's void.
On other nights, in other places, the silence would be dulled by a crying baby,
while her mother sings a lullaby,
Or in the desert by the plaintive shriek of an anonymous wind,
As it hurtles across the desert floor,
To lands beyond horizon's reach.
But on this night, the silence is absolute,
And it comforts me like a blanket comforts a child.
I love your voice ❤
Okay I need an opinion on something, does poetry have to rhyme?
Brundha Boora no!
No there are many amazing poems out there that don't rhyme at all. But that's not to say either that rhyming poetry is bad or childish but the typical forms that have rhyming schemes are no longer popular among contemporary poets.
In the middle of the night she woke up
Like a lost lamb crawled back to me
Into my arms
Without alarm
Gentle heart rested upon its make shift pillow
I looked down upon you like the leaves of a willow
Though you slept and surly would have danced and leapt
In the theatre of your head
I laid there listening to you
Not wanting to miss a single moment as I watched over you as
you slept
Simi can you tell me what according to you is good poetry?
I want your opinion as an
English major. Can you give me an example too💕
Thank you!
Peace lover Dover Beach is an example I gave in the video!
@@SimiReads oh okay thank you so much❤️
i sacrificed my dignity so i can write shit
plattitudes with attitudes
and
line breaks
to make it
look
poetic and
deep
as crimson as the period blood on my instagram pic
be cool stay in school
-- rupi kaur
"Dover Beach" is an excellent poem. Good choice. I'm afraid I can't agree with you concerning Maya Angelou. While she wasn't a terrible poet (at her best), she was still pretty bad.
Given the following these accounts have people obviously like it. For me instapoetry is accessible to a wider audience. I feel that traditional poetry has excluded me and turned me away. When speaking with others many feel the same, and that is why poetry is not widely liked by us non English majors. Also I dont think its fair to call anyone's work lazy. This is why I always hated having to talk about books in English classes growing up because writing is SO subjective. We all can read the same thing and all have different thoughts and opinions. That is why I always try and not say anyone's work is bad, just not for me. Insta poetry just isn't for you, but its not lazy or bad.
A LOOP IN ETERNITY
The desert is a study of dueling extremes.
The day's heat wrestles night's impending chill,
Yet there is no victor,
The pendulum forever swings.
During a summer's midday the desert smolders like the ashes of a freshly extinguished bonfire.
The air is thick as honey,
And the heat envelopes and coddles your soul,
Yet ravages your flesh.
Your skin must be completely veiled from the burning sun by a thin layer of porous fabric.
Any exposed skin on your face vibrates like the water in a pot just before the boil.
But once the sun sets, the temperature plummets.
Soon the chill of night persecutes the heat of day.
But for a fleeting moment, as day's dominion gives way to night's control,
The two eternal foes become locked in a titanic struggle and neither surrenders.
It is during that ephemeral moment, a semantic space pregnant with transition,
That the desert is neither hot nor cold,
Neither this nor that.
And yet during that fleeting moment, the desert is all those things in one,
Yet not one of those things in all.
Inevitably the chill overpowers desert's heat, and the titanic struggle is no more.
The heat of day becomes legend's lore,
But surely will return once more.
For now, the night chill is unbound and free to roam.
A man not protected from the desert's chill of night can die from extended exposure.
The first symptom is a numbing of his extremities.
His fingers first and then his nose become insensitive to touch.
The mighty desert wind slams against his naked flesh,
And it soon feels more like the burn of fire than the chill of ice.
Such can be the desert at night.
Ok. So When I see ALL the videos on RUclips about this crap it makes me sad that it getting so much attention. I will say one thing. They got them published. I would love to get published. I have been writing on and off for years but don’t know where or what to with my poems?? They are not instapoetry and are very personal. But it’s time. Any advise??
Kaur's work sounds like diary notes. Yes, like stream of consciousness. Not, subjectively, poetry.
I'm not going to agree with your statement: poetry is ALL about showing. Poetry is about balance between many things: latinate and Anglo-Saxon, high and low, abstract and concrete, iambs and a trochee, and, yes, showing and telling. In my opinion.
nothing like non poets writing non poetry and being heralded as literary geniuses lolz
Lazy lazy lazy lazy, and still publishers take them on because they have a platform of young girls following them.
And make it all the same bad milk. Published in China. NWO. Mind control to cause a lil infertility!
Liberal arts degrees are fine if you had practical minors and/or graduate degrees in practical
Damn this is so stupid. Thanks instagram 🤡
Sylvia Plath
And YES Toni Morrison “I RISE”
Shakespeare
Yeats
Kerouac
Hunter Thompson
Emily Dickinson
Edna St. Vincent Millay
There is stanza there is channeled romantic love and grief and appreciation for things and people and experiences
This me me me me - I’m this - this self actualization and inability to drawn on or from history or music or things with reverence that are the spark of God in YOU.
These kids. They haven’t read anything!!! They are brands and and branded and I am sad.
Hahah.
All about stars and their hipster “home” libraries color coded.
None of these women can get outside of their own days?