Micropoetry and Instapoets: The new form of poetry writing

By migrator | Aug 2, 2016, 14:37 IST

(By Mebanaibor Nengnong)| Poetry as we know is the melody that comes from the depths of emotion[s], the rational and irrational thought perceived within oneself. It is a serenity of words in its pristine nature and poets explain the inexplicable in paper with words so gentle and serene, the words itself sing a song that creates a lullaby that can calm the storm of our struggles as well as the overwhelming joy in life.

Poetry is a rustication from the chaos of everyday distress; it is the capability to see through concrete madness and insatiable reality. In other words, poetry is an escapade against hard times and it let us explain the unspeakable. It is a connation interpreted straight from the soul. The imagination we have of a life without adversaries is abstained from the world we lived in, but poetry allows us to, even lament and extol pain and suffering, joy and bliss without severed consequences. Poetry is where most of us can comprehend and have an upper hand against all odds. Poetry is a collection of words that express an idea or emotion which is often used in the form of an imagery or metaphor to depict a story so as to have a connection between readers and poets.

There are different forms of poetry and the only difference between them is based on the format, rhyme scheme and subject matter. However, what is the point to learn what we have already known. There's a new breed of poets who are referred to as Instapoets and a new form of poetry known as micropoetry that has taken the poet community by storm and it is a favourite among many and we have merely been ignorant to observe that. This form of poetry was founded by the Novelist W.G. Sebald who may have been the first to use the term "Micropoem," in reference to the poems of about 20 words in length that made up his 2004 work, Unrecounted.

It is a form of poetry which is a short poetic art form or poetic verse which doesn't follow any rules and regulation like other forms of poetry does. However, it does consist of certain rules prefixed to other short poems such as Haiku, Tanka, SANYO and Gogyohka. The growth and progress of this new form of poetry have created a modern platform for avid writers to compose poems and connect with people from every corner of the world. It only exists in the virtual world, most popularly on instagram where there are group of poets known as instapoets who has the same passion, love and admiration for art. They share their poems online and showcase their piece to the world. Instagram connects people from different places across the globe who can like and share the post posted on instagram, thus leading to a worldwide view.

It is said that this new breed of poetry shares the quality of found poetry (a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases from other sources and re-framing them as poetry, would mean a collage) where poetic style is discovered in text which is not intended to be poetic. However, when one reads them, it does sound poetic and one emotionally connects with it. It may be short but it tells a tale. In this modern world dominated by technology, it is not so bad; even though when one is not sitting around a camp fire, the essence of a warm fire is felt.

Talking to one of the instapoets from Northeast India, @soulscape (An Instagram pen name), she said; "We are happy to live our passion, share and communicate with our tribe (Group of Instapoets) connecting one soul with another. Instagram and instapoetry community has been a wonderful outlet to let our passion flow."

Publishing houses these days are concerned on what sells and what doesn't. Thus, unfortunately poetry has been ignored for fear that they might not sell and benefit these houses. In today's world where everything is about business, online poetry such as this, is a great platform to showcase the importance of this specific art form of which we have been indifferent and ignorant towards.

Poetry is never meant to acquire a lavish lifestyle. It's about connecting one soul with one another. It is a community, a tribe driven by passion to expose their amazing art to the world; the adversaries of life are dealt with words pen down in text, harming none. Let just say that instapoets composed instant poems with lesser words that has an impact so deep. One may think that poetry composition is pseudo-intellectual but poetry takes an arduous measure of the mind and words cannot be expressed so easily. There have been people who have actually said that poetry is for the pseudo-intellect but remember, without poetry there couldn't have been a possibility of music with lyrics.

At times we go through a tribulation and we let it our frustrations out in different forms, however poetry helps in letting it all out without damaging a person's trachea. Try it! That's why it's call micropoetry; it's short because it's about what you feel at the very instant. Try it! Surely will help you get an upper hand against all odds.

The term Instapoet is an identity. Thus, in conclusion, these instapoets doesn't write to merely make a name for themselves but to touch lives and let distraught souls out there know that they're not alone but poetry in this new form will give them comfort and keep them aloof from a sense of being empty and lonely.

Take these few micropoetry taken from these amazing instapoets as examples. They will surely provide you with warmness of the soul: