Instagram poets society: selfie age gives new life and following into poetry

Skepticism is expected, but these social media astute authors are causing a phenomenon and tapping into internet’s appetite for minimal language
One of Atticus’s Instagram poems
 One of Atticus’s Instagram poems Photograph: @Atticuspoetry/Instagram
The phenomenon of Instagram poets – who are also, to be fair, Tumblr poets and Pinterest poets – has been one of the more surprising side-effects of the selfie age.
“Instagram poets” are, of course, simply poets, but they’re a phenomenon unto themselves because they have cleverly managed to combine the internet’s love of an inspirational quote with artful typography and immediate shareability. Poems are ideally suited, in some ways, to social media, because they pack so much meaning into so little language.
Whatever one might think of their work, they are unquestionably popular, and they are popular in an age when poetry is reputed to be dead. They get reposted by the likes of Karlie Kloss, and even the Kardashians, as the New York Times pointed out last fall. Tyler Knott Gregson, one of the most popular, published a hardcover book of poetry in 2014 that continues to enjoy strong sales on Amazon and an almost perfect five-star rating.
Peruse Kloss’s social media feeds and you will find quite a few re-grams and re-blogs from the mysterious web poet known only as Atticus. Recently, she posted one of his one-liners that reads, “Give like the sun and the whole world grows tall.”