the sun and her flowers

Rupi Kaur is known as an “instapoet.” The term refers to poets who share their work on the social media site Instagram. Instagram was launched in 2010, and Kaur first posted her poetry there in 2013. Instagram and other social media sites such as Tumblr offered a unique opportunity to aspiring poets. The advantages were obvious. Having written a short, easy-to-understand poem dealing with a topic that many people could relate to, with a few keystrokes a poet could make his or her work instantly available to a potentially large audience. This was a revolutionary way of publishing poetry that gave complete control to the poet. Traditionally, poets would submit their work initially to a literary magazine or a poetry magazine. They would then wait a long time, usually months, before the magazine editors made a decision about whether they would publish the poem. Poets would often experience the discouragement of receiving a polite letter of rejection. If the poem was accepted, there would usually be another long wait before it appeared in print. Payment was either just a few dollars or nothing at all. Once a poet had published around six or eight poems in reputable poetry magazines, only then could he or she start thinking about submitting a book-length collection of poems to a publisher. It was almost impossible to find an agent for a poetry submission, so the large publishers were inaccessible. Instead, poets would try to find a small poetry publisher, and they would once again go through the long process of editorial review. An alternative would be to self-publish, but the market for an unknown, self-published poet would likely be very small.

In contrast, the path for the ambitious Instagram poet quickly became clear. Such a poet did not need to study for a master of fine arts degree, which has been the traditional route for those who desire to learn the craft of writing poetry. Many of the poets who started posting on Instagram had little formal training in the discipline, but this did not matter. They accumulated readers (“followers”) because they wrote poems that were easy to understand at first reading. The reader did not need to analyze them or puzzle them out. It was not like reading, say, Wallace Stevens or T. S. Eliot. Indeed, subtlety of technique, form, or theme would be a disadvantage for an instapoet. A poem also had to be short, mostly so it could fit onto the small screen of a smartphone. Instagram, as its name implies, thus offered instant gratification for poet and reader alike.

As instapoets gained popularity through accumulating followers and “likes,” some of the most successful ones collected their poems into books and self-published them. One such instapoet was Lang Leav, who in 2013 self-published her poetry in a book titled Love & Misadventure. It sold so well that she was offered a contract by an independent publisher, Andrews McMeel, based in Kansas City, far from the traditional home of publishing in New York City. Love & Misadventure went on to sell more than 150,000 copies. This was a staggering success, considering that a new collection of poetry even by an established poet would normally be expected to sell only a couple of thousand copies. Two years later, Kaur took the same route, when her self-published book milk and honey was taken up by the same publisher, who also published the sun and her flowers in 2017. Other instapoets who have also sold a large number of printed books include Atticus, R. M. Drake, Amanda Lovelace, Najwa Zebian, and Nikita Gill.

This kind of commercial success has given instapoets a chance to actually make a living from being a poet, which up to that point very few people, even those who were household names, were able to do. With the almost ubiquitous use of social media, a completely new audience has sprung up for poetry.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about this new phenomenon, however. Those of a more academic bent have criticized instapoets for not paying sufficient attention to the demands of their craft. According to this view, instapoets lack poetic technique. Their poetry consists of clichéd or trite sentiments that tap into a ready market for self-help material, or they simply want to show their support for a particular social cause, such as feminism, antiracism, LGBTQ, or others. Instapoets, say their critics, prioritize the immediacy of their feelings over reflection, consideration, and careful thought. They should be regarded as pop culture figures rather than genuine literary artists.

Not surprisingly, fans of instapoetry reject such criticism as elitist and irrelevant. They say that instapoets have infused new life into a stodgy corner of literature that few people had much interest in. With their fresh approach, they have introduced millions of people to poetry who might otherwise never have read a single poetic line. Supporters also point out that poets and writers have always adapted to the emergence of new forms of communication. Instapoets reflect the way communication between people is changing as a result of social media; they are in tune with the zeitgeist of the 2020s and know how to respond to it in poetry.

It might also be added that in the past, poets who have produced work that did not fit the prevailing notions of what constitutes poetry have often had to struggle for acceptance. One famous example would be Walt Whitman, who self-published his Leaves of Grass in 1855. Whitman had to wait a long time for people to appreciate the book’s groundbreaking quality. He wrote in the preface to the first edition of Leaves of Grass, “The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.” By that yardstick, instapoet Rupi Kaur has proved herself a poet. Her appeal is not limited to one nation; she has become beloved—affectionately absorbed—by her young fans all over the world, just as she herself has absorbed their aspirations, longings, struggles, doubts, and fears and expressed them in ways that they can grasp and respond to wholeheartedly.