Poetry, like all of literature and art, is meant to be discussed, analyzed, and criticized. When writing poetry, or making any form of art, it is important to think about what you are trying to convey to your audience, and the implications of what your message might be once it is received.
I am an active part of the poetry community on Instagram, and have noticed a sort of trend occurring in male poets. Popular male poets on Instagram (such as Atticus, r. h. Sin, and r. m. drake to name a couple) often write poetry, not for themselves, but for women. They write from the perspective of women and direct it towards women. As people who identify as male, there must be no purpose to this other than boost sales.
Addressing women in your poetry and tailoring your poetry towards women is admittedly a great marketing strategy. Recognizing that their audience is made up of mainly women, these poets have received much money and book deals because of the work they publish. However, this is what downgrades poetry from an art into a commodity. It devalues the artistic purpose of poetry, a way to express your own personal feelings and values, and turns it into something you write to cater to your audience. It takes away the art form of poetry and turns it into something you use to manipulate your audience into giving you more money.
And these poets have become masters of manipulation. They understand that women feed off of these positive, empowering messages – and that is what they give them. When you go on the feeds of these poets, such as the account of r.m. drake, you are bombarded with quotes that seem to fit more on a motivational poster than in a poetry book. One such poem reads: “You can feel broken and still / be enough. Remember that.” and, “Sometimes, in the end, what matters / most is how you picked yourself up / after recognizing what you’ve lost.” In this poem by Atticus, he writes: “Her courage / was her / crown and / she wore it / like a queen.”
These male poets do not write for or about themselves – they write for their female audience. They speak over women about issues that affect them, such as cheating men, toxic relationships, sexual assault, and abuse. They use their platforms to dominate this space meant for women, using their voice – not to speak up for themselves and issues that affect men – but to address women, to tell them how to live their lives and teach them how to heal. This is not a place for the white male voice to shout over others.
Some of these male poets even degrade the male population in order to appeal to their female following. r. h. Sin often writes poetry telling women how to feel about men or behave towards them, as shown in this poem, “your ex isn’t / a narcissist / he’s just dumb / as f*ck” and this poem: “Never lose sleep over a man who was too much of a coward to appreciate you.” As a man, is this how r. h. Sin genuinely feels about other men? Does he really believe in putting down other men in order to uplift women? Or is this just another marketing ploy to make more sales on his books? Many other male poets also put down their fellow men, calling them “assholes,” “cowards,” and other harsh names. Do these poets group themselves in with these other males, or are they somehow magically separated from their sex? What gives them this position of authority over all the other males?
Many of these poets have been criticized for exploiting the “broken girl” archetype for their own gain. In an r.m. drake poem, he writes, “sometimes the most beautiful / people are beautifully broken.” An r. h. sin poem reads, “broken girls / have the deepest love.” In this poem by JmStorm, he writes, “she is a / beautiful piece / of broken / poetry, put / back together by / her own hands. / and a critical world / judges her cracks / while missing the / beauty of how she / made herself / whole again.”
Again, these poets are appealing to their female crowd, attracting all the broken and damaged girls, and serving as the dominant male voice that can piece them back together again with their words. White knighting is prevalent with these poets, as they take it upon themselves to fix these broken girls. JmStorm writes, “love her harder than / her insecurities. / love her deeper than / her deepest fears, / and prove to her / that love conquers all.” r. m. drake tells women, “I just want to fall in love with you / over and over again… and hold you / until nothing can hurt us again.”
All of this is positive and uplifting, but is it poetry? Or is it just motivational quotes? Poetry should showcase your unique voice, your personal past and future, how you encounter the world, and your individual feelings. Poetry should offer something unique to the world – whether that be insight, emotion, opinion, or a memory. What I am seeing on these accounts is not poetry. It is not unique to these writers, it does not tell a story of who these writers are or where they come from.
