“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion.”
John Keating, Dead Poets Society
Everyone needs little poetry in their lives and social media platforms like Instagram have made it easier for us. In our fast-paced lives, we get little to no time to connect back to the art that makes us human. Here is a short list of our favorite Instagram poets you should read.
Megha Rao
“And when she dies, she will gift her daughters the one thing that protects them: venom.
You should know,
your rage is not a curse.
That there will be nights you dream of floating in an island, your feet bare
singing with other cannibal girls,
your mouth watering for shipwrecks.”
Credits: Instagram (_megharao)
Megha Rao is a 27-year-old poet from Kerala who started with poetry on Instagram a few years back. Eventually, she started her podcast, named Poems To Calm Down To, for which she gained immense popularity. Her poetry podcast was trending at #1 on Spotify India and stayed on top of the charts for two years. In 2021, she released her debut poetry book, Teething, published by HarperCollins India. She has been featured in Penguin Random House India, Harper’s Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Outlook, BBC Radio, and POETRY Magazine.
Her Instagram poems primarily focus on themes of trauma, love, chaos, and questions around the self – its positioning, stature, judgments, individuality, and the truth. Her poetry is heartbreaking, and gut-wrenching, it quite literally forms lumps in your throat, makes you squirm, question everything about you, and look beyond the words. It’s evocative and makes you sit back and think things through. With her debut novel, Our Bones in Your Throat on the way to publishing, today, Megha Rao is a renowned performance poet, who still writes on Instagram regularly.
Aaditya Pandey
“so I traffic in the web of
amorphous biochemical and electrical impulses
to understand why I was given
the name of a mythical hindu god
who cursed his son to turn queer
what has been attempted to emphasize here:
the curse, the cursed or the curser?”
Credits: Instagram (farazkighazal)
Aaditya Pandey is a young and growing poet who started posting his poems on Instagram in 2020. At an early age, he has received recognition by platforms like Live Wire and Poems India. His poetry is versatile and revolves around themes of everyday life and moments, society and social structures, and self and the being. My Mother Is Growing On Me is one of his popular poems.
Kamakshi Anand
“she said all the women she knew were once girls with soft palms whose fathers had taught them to hold on and hold together, whose mothers had paused infinity and never let them forget. these women whose girlhood was ragged breaths and broken bones, women who’d been smiling too long.”
Credits: Instagram (wingedwords02)
Kamakshi Anand is another young poet on Instagram who started posting her poetry under a pen name, Kia. In 2019, she gave her account a new outlook and took another step towards a successful journey with her real name. Since then, she has only grown upwards. Her poetry is about every little thing in life that we overlook. She scrutinizes them and presents them in profound and evocative verses. Her poems are often sad yet comforting, about society and its effects on us. In 2021, she published her very first poetry book, Say Your Vows.
Akif Kichloo
“and when we touch we die and when we die we are born
same old but purer each time
amen to that
you. you. tu.
to you i vanish to you i elevate to you i fall to you i transcend
i hum i close my eyes jump off the cliff
to you is enough.”
Instagram: Credits (akifkichloo)
Afik Kichloo is another popular Instagram poet. He started writing poetry at an early age, just after completing a bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery. Currently, he is a full-time poet, focusing on writing alone before he pursues higher education. With his publications at The Huffington Post and The Wire, he still writes for magazines and newspapers. His poetry revolves around the themes of love and loss.
Kichloo’s poems have been featured in esteemed international anthologies that include Poem a Day Anthology (2015), Umbilical Cords: An Anthology on Parents Remembered (2015), Different Truths Anthology (2017), Sheraza Literary Journal of J & K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages. Furthermore, his verses have graced the pages of numerous literary magazines, including Glass, Palette Poetry, and Fly Paper Magazine, among others. He has also released three poetry books – The Feeling May Remain (2016), Poems That Lose (2017), and Falling Through Love: Poems (2019).
