"Tumblr" Poetry

Just want to hear thoughts about the new trend of "tumblr" poetry. Is it poetry? What do you think about it?

I'm not sure what you mean by "tumblr" poetry, as I'm not on tumblr. Can you provide an example?

If you're talking about posting poetry on tumblr, it'd be worth reading First Publishing Rights and Why You Should Care. The translated terms and services points out that posting to Tumblr is like publishing, meaning you lose the rights to the work. This would be a problem if you wanted to publish the work someday. This is not a concern on YWS, as you retain rights to your work and can remove it at any time.

I think by tumblr poetry you mean the genre of poems that are like short little snippets - normally just a line or two and are posted and then shared again and again on places like tumblr, sometimes twitter or instagram. Like the poems by Atticus and midara are two that I know of. Oh! And Rupi Kaur - whose poems are maybe a bit longer than Atticus and midara, but still fits in this category!

I wonder if there's another genre name for it, I think it's a super interesting development and should be considered a genre or type on its own. But I absolutely think it's poetry! I'm all about people pushing the definition of what a poem "is" and I think that there's something about tumblr poetry is a lot more accessible than some of the older poetry we have. I mean haikus are often just as long as the stuff tumblr poets post - so length and stanzas are not necessary for something to be a poem.

I think sometimes even these short verses are incredibly thought provoking, vulnerable, and emotionally expressive. Although I think it's interesting that they're also so anonymous. Like with one line you can't establish much narrative context, and I rarely have a clue about who the author is as a person, or even their real name! I think that these poems definitely have literary merit, and are actually an accessible way that people still are consuming and encountering poetry - though I think they should be judged in a different category from "normal" free-verse and structured poetry, because the technique used is different. As someone who enjoys narrative poetry quite a bit, I can't say tumblr/instagram poetry is my favorite type of poetry, but I do find them to be enjoyable little snippets.

@niteowl I apologize for the confusion! I didn't explain myself very well. alliyah described what I meant and what "tumblr poetry" is in a very clear way if you need clarification (;

@alliyah Perfect! Just what I meant! Thank you for explaining it. I agree with you that it's a lot more accessible and gives more people a chance to experience poetry!

I found quite a bit of articles on the subject, so here's the links. I'm not sure how credible they are, but I think it contributes to the topic. Also, I think some contain some language, so if you're sensitive to that please be cautious.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/23/instapoets-instagram-twitter-poetry-lang-leav-rupi-kaur-tyler-knott-gregson

https://qz.com/quartzy/1192915/in-defense-of-rupi-kaur-and-instagrams-pop-poets/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/23/poetry-world-split-over-polemic-attacking-amateur-work-by-young-female-poets

Okay thanks for the clarification.

I would agree with alliyah that it is poetry and probably fits into its own genre/style. There's certainly pros to its accessibility and popularity.

In my opinion, the quality seems to vary based on the examples I've seen. Some are concise yet thought-provoking, while others feel bland and cliche. I know from experience that writing a good short poem is really hard. These aren't my best works, but they seem like the kind of thing I could share on Instagram if I were so inclined (which I'm not because of the ownership concerns).
Layers
short poems

My concerns with this style aren't really about the work itself, but how it might influence a budding writer.

1) Let's say a young person is interested in writing and follows all these poets on Instagram. She might think that is the best style and that's what she mimics in her own poetry. This could lead to her not finding her own style and voice unless she branches out and gets into reading other poetry and experimenting.

2) Okay, so this young person goes ahead and publishes some work on Instagram or Tumblr. Besides the ownership/removal issues I discussed above, this creates another problem. Social media is one giant popularity contest, but what gets the most "likes" isn't necessarily the best quality. Our budding author might get few likes on something that's good but not easily digestible, but she might get a ton of likes on something digestible and cliche. As a result, she'd probably steer towards what gets likes and be afraid to experiment or do something that the followers won't like. She also probably wouldn't get the kind of constructive feedback you'd get on a site like YWS, so she might not be able to improve.

I admit that I'm sort of affected by this issue on YWS. Sometimes I'll work hard on something and it will only get a few likes and I'll be bummed. I could definitely see a younger version of myself being influenced by the likes and churning out something not-so-good because it's similar to what's gotten likes in the past.

3) At least one of the articles quoted an Instagram poet as saying her posts are first drafts. This isn't good for our budding author, who might think that's the standard and you should write something and then post it immediately. I would advise against doing this. Usually, I've revised things at least once before publishing to YWS. Also, I can easily edit or unpublish it which you can't do on Instagram. So our hypothetical wannabe Instagram poet is likely to post something terrible, not become super-famous, and have that cringe haunt her for years to come. Whoops.

tl;dr: it's a valid style, but quality varies and the trend could negatively influence young writers

I do think it a form of poetry. I actually admire those who can write a poem of merely 3 lines and make it intriguing and interesting to read.

Also when you think about it "tumblr poetry" is no further away from what we typically identify as poetry then several other poetry genres are; such as haiku, dodoitsu, or even tanka and gogyohka.

But though I do consider it a form of poetry, I wouldn't engourage other new poets to limit themselves to tumblr poetry, or be first introduced to poetry through it.

Great discussions everyone! I also have a few things for us to think about...

@niteowl mentioned something about ownership concerns, which is an extremely valid point. A few copyright arguments in the 'Instapoet" community have already happened, due to some material sounding similar. So this begs the question...Is the stylistic choices of the Instapoet to blame? Or can we simply blame the repetitive metaphors of writing itself? Is social media even the right place to post your work? It certainly reaches a lot of people, but copyright issues seem like they could be a big deal. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Another thing that niteowl pointed out was the unedited versions of the instapoet's poems. With the seemingly whole brand of the insta/tumblr poet being about authenticity, how do you think editing attributes to that? Is it more or less "authentic" to edit? In editing poetry, how does one still keep the authenticity of the first draft?

@snowmonkey9 pointed out that new poets shouldn't limit themselves to the "tumblr" style of poetry. Just for fun, what would be some easy styles of structured poems to let new poets experiment?

Another fun question: @alliyah mentioned that they wished tumblr poetry had a different genre name. If it did, what do you think it should be called?

Sorry for all of the questions, just wanted to keep the ball rolling a bit and give us something to think about!

Most of "tumblr" poetry is enjambment abuse and being so hopelessly obtuse that one can read any layer of meaning into it. I am not a fan.
It is poetry.
But usually not the good kind.

And the reason for it not being good or of much literary value in my experience has often been their writers' inability to handle criticism , because we grow only when we know the flaws with our work .
Many want to hide behind the "it's art and all art is perfect" boulder.

I'm talking about the Tumblr/insta poetry of the
"They were
lost but we
weren't."
kind, and not all poetry on those media

@Traves, do you feel that all of it is just negative?

I feel like while it might not be great quality poetry most of the time [there are always exceptions], it is a new way for people to express themselves and if someone's not really into poetry, they just like the picture quote thing and they don't even realize they're doing poetry, it's a good way for them to get involved.

Another avenue of this is actually facebook poetry and blog poetry. I feel like a lot of the poems I read on blogs and on facebook groups is pretty mediocre but at least they're writing and sharing. Honestly, I don't find a lot of poetry very thought provoking or "great" unless I'm reading a published poetry magazine or a published poet anyway. We're all amatures, even on the other poetry sites.

I don't know how many times I read a Poetry Soup poem and just rolled my eyes because it rhymed and was cliche and bland. I've tried other poetry sites too, but when I give feedback, I get nothing.

They aren't on those sites to improve their work, they're on them to share their work, regardless of what people think of it. It might be ignorant incompetence, but they'll see it in time when they start to read, and if they don't read, they won't be published, so what's it matter? It's just a hobby for them anyway.

@Aley I agree with most of what you're saying. I never said others were good. But at least they are trying. My own poetry is pretty bad.
It's a supply demand kinda thing, I guess. There's a market, it can sell. EL James sells too, but we don't call that good literature .

Of course it's fine for people to like it and do it, I know people who got more into other kinds of poetry because of it, but those are not redeeming qualities in themselves.

Also, note that I'm not maligning the media themselves like facebook or blogs or Tumblr or instagram, I'm talking about a certain kind of posts.
Although, if it IS a hobby for people, then wouldn't becoming better be one of their goals, somewhere in the back of their minds?
I know no one who has a hobby they're interested in and they don't want to get better at it. Whether they actually manage to get better at it is non relevant. To me it's the thought and effort that counts.

As far as another genre name, I just watched a youtube critique of this poetry where they called it "insta-poetry" and I kind of like that - because even if it's posted on sites other than instagram (tumblr, facebook, twitter) I think that the "instant" part is still descriptive. It's instant in that the writing is short, instantly accessible, and maybe provides "instant gratification" or "instant meaning" without needing to "dig deep" - there are rarely metaphors that need careful unpacking or extended narratives or allusions to untie.

I think @Traves makes a good point that there is a difference between poetry and "good" poetry or "skilled" poetry. The definition of poetry should be kept as open as possible, but what is "good" or "skilled" might still need some bounds and guidelines.

I think that poetry does have to adapt to stay relevant, although that doesn't mean that traditional forms are any less important, but I just am not sure that people are still wanting to read sonnets? Maybe this is just one of the directions poetry is adapting - short, simple, lots of use of the "enter key". Other modern forms of poetry look a lot different than this though, so I don't think that the insta-poetry is the only option for the future of poetry.

Also I definitely don't think that "non-edited" work is anymore authentic than edited work. Edits often are what it takes to get at the heart of what you're really wanting to say.

With the seemingly whole brand of the insta/tumblr poet being about authenticity, how do you think editing attributes to that? Is it more or less "authentic" to edit? Inediting poetry, how does one still keep the authenticity of the first draft?

I'm not sure "authentic" is the right word for a first draft. "Raw" might be more fitting. Like alliyah said, your work can still be authentic after you edit it. I think with social media, people are used to sharing what's on their mind immediately, but poetry doesn't have to be shared the second you write it. If what you're writing is worth reading, I promise it will still be worth reading in 24 hours.

Your first draft is going to be based on your instincts, which might be right on the nose or way off. The first word you come up with isn't always going to be the right word, and you might have better ideas after some time away and another read-through. Perhaps when you're ready to open it up to feedback, someone else will see something you didn't or have a suggestion to fix something you couldn't figure out. Also, you might have weird writing "quirks" that get in the way of what you're trying to say, like odd filler words, that can be edited away.

I'd say the main way someone would write inauthentically is if they're doing something simply because "that's the way it should be" without any evaluation of whether it's the right way for their voice or this poem. Like when I first joined YWS, I intentionally put grammar/spelling errors in my poems because I'd read other poems on the Internet that did that so I just thought I had to do that too. I was rather relieved to be corrected and go back to my authentic voice, which usually spells things correctly.

also,
one could argue
that writing like
this
for more likes
is less than authentic.
-niteowl

I don't have many thoughts on this new genre of poetry myself, but I just found and read an interesting article from the The Atlantic that talks about this specific style of poetry! I thought you guys would be interested in reading it, so here's the link.

How Instagram Saved Poetry

Thanks for sharing @Saen!!

ooofff... that article is interesting, and I'm going to have to take some time to read it in depth and come back with better formulated opinions. But from skimming it a bit, I really dislike the premise that poetry is "dead" -- I think poetry is constantly re-born and we aren't currently seeing a lot of Shakespearean sonnets, but I do not think poetry is in danger of "dieing" at all. Or that Instagram or Rupi Kaur "saved poetry".

As long as we have lyrical music, we have poetry. As long as we have radio commercials that use imagery and metaphor, we have poetry. As long as people revere the Psalms from the Bible, or listen to re-invented versions of Shakespeare plays, we have poetry. Poetry might look different now than it did 10, 50, 100, 1000 years ago - but the use of language to communicate emotion through artistic word-choice and forms isn't going away.

To me the "instagram poetry" is just one of the natural progressions of one of the ways (in a long history list, than many poets have contributed to) that poetry is re-inventing itself.

A big point of this article was that Rupi Kaur and instagram saved poetry, because now some of these artists are actually making money with their art, unlike many past poets who couldn't possibly pay the bills themselves with poetry alone. But To judge how influential a type of media is based on numbers of books sold or money made seems superficial to me. Though I think it's awesome when artists can actually support themselves from their art - especially poets - because let's face it, that is a rare thing indeed. Still though, I don't think the goal of poetry or art ought to be money? Nor do I think the success of an artist should be determined by how successful it is monetarily.

Curious what other opinions people have on this though?

(Also I will try to return with a better less-rant-fueled response once I've had a chance to read that article more thoroughly)

I might have to agree with @traves on this one. I mean, I appreciate when people take an interest in literature. But I don't think tumblr is a good example of proper literature. I'm not generalizing anything, but over the past years tumblr has cooked up some of the weirdest things ever, most of them based on heavy stereotypes, which are often just cringe. The poetry on tumblr seems to follow a similar pattern. I don't know. Just my opinion. There are various exceptions.