We have to find inspiration wherever we can get it. Most of the time, we’re too busy to take some time to relax and read what we want to read, what gives us pleasure, instead of what we have to read due to work, school, or because we have to keep up with the endless news about politics, international conflict, and a million other things that make us think the world is a terrible place. Let’s not forget that there is beauty among all the horrors. One way we can get a dose of beauty on a daily basis, even if we’re busy, is by curating the content we choose to follow on social media. To keep our Internet use healthy, we need to maintain a balance between the chaotic news and the things that bring us joy. So, if poetry is one of the things you love, you can improve your day by following these poets’ Instagram accounts. Their work will bring you joy, not because it’s rosy and comfortable, but because it will remind you that good, beautiful things can come out of life’s inevitable bad experiences.
Nayyirah Waheed
Nayyirah Waheed’s poetry proves that established editors don’t always recognize good work. She started self-publishing her short poems on Instagram after her first book was rejected, and her account quickly became popular. Through her poems, she tackles subjects like gender, race, and relationships. You will find her poems particularly poignant if you’re going through a bad time, because they serve as a reminder that there’s something nurturing about hardship, and that we need to give ourselves space to experience our feelings and emotions fully, even the negative ones.
Nikita Gill
Nikita Gill’s book, Your Soul is a River, is described as a book about recovering from trauma. Before reading it, you can start familiarizing with her work through her Instagram account. There, you’ll find short and energetic poems that will encourage you to let your individual fierceness out. Her words are direct and powerful, and they’re exactly what you need as you start your day. Her words are about female vitality and an independent kind of love and eroticism.
Pavana Reddy
Pavana Reddy is a Los Angeles based poet. Her work, which focuses on love and relationships, is mainly about transitions: the beginnings and ends that remind us life is ever-changing and full of moments that allow us to grow and shed old skin. Her poems encourage us to stop thinking about our personality as something solid, and to start taking advantage of its malleability and its fluidity to discover our hidden sides. To keep this in mind, follow her and start reading her poems as a daily ritual.
Lang Leav
Lang Leav’s fame on social media turned her into a bestselling author. Her prose poems prove that you can find quality among the many Instagram poets that use uplifting clichés and trite phrases about love to amass a big number of followers. You won’t find any pictures of sentimental landscapes in her account. Instead, you’ll be able to enjoy love poems that acknowledge love’s real complexity and its ups and downs without idealizing it.
–
These young poets have many things in common besides the fact that they have a ton of followers on social media. Their perspectives and the subjects they examine are similar, and they can all inspire you to write your own ideas to create something beautiful.
If you loved this article, you might also enjoy:
“What We Lose”, The Book About How Loss Is The Only Way To Learn About Womanhood
5 Trippy Poems That Show Psychedelia Was A Thing Before The Sixties
Cover image by Angie López.