21st Century Poetry 2.0

Published in Josephite Munnade, 2020

A venue packed to its brim and over-flowing, eyes focused on the stage, hearts clinging on to every word that serenades out of the poet’s mouth. This is the air inside a Rupi Kaur “concert”. To think of a poetry performance this packed and associated with the word “concert”, might already be going a little over the head of what traditional poetry should be, but Rupi isn’t just a poet, she is an internet born. And like every other thing that is a child of the internet, she is as real as it could get- appealing to the eye, and the internet customised soul, bite-sized, relatable and trending.

Welcome to 21st century poetry 2.0.

All this is very well, but when you are studying English literature and you are in class, pouring over Yeats, Wordsworth and Shelley, you can’t help but wonder how poetry has changed- over centuries, decades and years. True, it still is a play of words and ideas, twisted and woven cleverly to connect and communicate to the parts in you that you never knew existed or had the capacity to communicate or connect. However, the way of expressing it has certainly changed. For one, the language is modern and straight forward. There is no sweat wasted on the elaboration of events and exaggeration of characters. There are only subtle nods to details and only to such that strike home when you read it. And it should come as no surprise that when these poetic lines make it as captions and tweets, they fit, like the lost shoe to Cinderella! What’s more, they are perfect for the ever busy tech savvies to read without having to fish out a dictionary to look up a word they didn’t quite understand.

Anyway, the predominant question here is, how has it changed? Isn’t it real poetry anymore? The fact is, it is. Poetry, in my opinion, does not always play by the rules, just like any other form of passionate art. Poetry is what is and what you make it to be. And as far as the change goes, poetry is something whose essence is hidden in its volatility. It has changed over the years and will continue to change. This time, I feel, it has changed for the better- expressing thoughts on issues that are in the now and need addressing. We, in 2018, do not need descriptions of the serene Scottish Highlands or the embroidery of English royalty. We need realism as well as a fantasy to escape the harsh realities of the world. Now more than ever, we need assurance of our own selves as the blatant realm of social media gets harsher thanbefore and everybody jumps on the bandwagon of “self-love”. We now feel the need to fit in, with our opinions, in every possible cranny in the virtual world. So, as poetry gets shorter and swings farther from the defined wavelength of conventionality, it only really gets more relevant and alluring to common people, blurring the fact that poetry is only for the cream of the society.

With the pace of the world faster than it ever has been, the changing façade of poetry, just needs to be acceptedand given space to thrive in its own way. With themes of feminism, mental health, self-love and loss, the poetry from the second decade of the new century is here and poets like Rupi Kaur, Atticus, Nikita Gill and Christopher Pointdexter are just getting started.