Young poets are using the easy access to digital forums like TerriblyTinyTales, and personal blogs to sidestep the conventional publishers. Poetry has been known to have great value as catharsis, both for the reader and the writer.
The young poets are using it to express their angst in personal, professional and social life. Whether is the floods in North, famine in Maharashtra, to Nirbhaya case to anxiety on modern stress, the youth are using poetry to voice their protest.
For instance, Aranya Johar became popular with her “A Brown Girl’s Guide to Gender”, and became an icon on the Indian scene of spoken word poetry.
The youth is also using the digital era to their benefit. Now you do not need any permission to express your rant or lament your desires. From the subtlest emotions to public outcry, all is given a fair chance. Nikita Gill, a 28 year old girl, has been rejected by 137 publishing houses, but her tumblr and Instagram followers are growing by hundreds every day. Mumbai-based student Harnidh Kaur is 21 years old, has more than 10,000 followers and launched a book last year.
With a generation that has been criticized for the dying culture of reading, and short attention spans, social media has become a tool to write short, succinct poetry, and the competition has ensured that the deserved get a voice.
So much has been made of microfiction success that brands like United Colors of Benetton leverage the platform for their marketing.
So, while we miss the days of yore with Robert Frost and Wordsworth and Tennyson, left in the deep and dark woods, the youth is reclaiming poetry in their own fashion. They experiment with the poetic metre, have made poetic license their playground, but they are stomping. And the voice behind the word grows louder with each verse.
