However, not everyone is happy with this new literary “boom”, many thorough critics have seen this as an unfortunate disgrace that real poetry is suffering. These critics are certain that words have no emotions on their own nor they are to be written to get new followers. They despise the speed in which these odd poems are produced for this constant flow of “new” material robs the more meticulous and artistic poets from their possible readers. They also assure that Instapoetry is but a random arrangement of words with little to no meaning, which sole artistic attribute lies in what their creators say about them: they are poems because a so called poet says so. At this point, we should, however, think back and remember the time where horse husbandry said that the car will have no future and that it was a mere fashion.
However unpleasant this new frantic poetic fashion has positively shaken the old branches of poetry, at least, from a market point of view, sales have never been so good. For instance, in the United Kingdom sales increased by 66% between 2012 and 2017 according to Nielsen BookScan. Around 1.3 millions poetry books were sold, a 12% increase compared to last year’s numbers. Also two thirds of the buyers were under 34 years old.
26 years old Canadian poet Rupi Kaur is one of the rising stars of this Instapoetry, she has over 3.7 millions followers. Her book "Milk and Honey", combining poetry, prose and illustrations, has grown in popularity specially in Great Britain. Rupi Kaur is at the top of the most sold poets and was responsible for more than 1 million euros in sales.
This Instapoetry, like it or not, is the new way for the poet to reach its readers and communicate directly. Plus it is revitalizing the whole industry.
Now in Córdoba.
Cosmopoética is an international poetry festival that takes place in Córdoba from the 27th of September to the 5th of October. This years 16th edition under the moto “God save the poetry” revolves around the UK with a punk attitude.
The workshops and activities of Cosmopoética look forward to meet and get to know “any new spaces, dialogues and attitudes”, as the director Antonio Agredano has publicly stated. Therefore the festival means to serve as a sort of lab and benchmark for new ways to create and destroy the old cannon.
It may be a perfect moment to sink in the abyss of the new poetry to better understand its odd ends and the hearts and minds behind it all.