8 Trends Currently Shaping Modern Poetry Writing
Poetry writing looks different in every generation, and with every year, we see new trends emerge and strengthen that set the stage for contemporary poems. Poetry is an age-old ship, but there are a few recent trends steering this craft in 2024, and they may even inspire your own work. Remember, there’s a vast spectrum of trends beyond these, and your unique voice is always relevant and valuable, even if it doesn’t neatly fit into these categories.
- Poetry Writing that Centres Societal Commentary
Modern artists, including poets, have always been the voice of societal conscience, but with our youth more socially aware than ever before, we’re seeing an uptick in such poetry. More and more young writers are mirroring social issues in their work, challenging the status quo, and using their energy for activism that uplifts the world. Poetry forces the reader to confront harsh truths, which is one reason why this genre of poetry writing will likely stick around for years to come. - Multidimensional Poetry with Mixed Media Forms
Poets today are dabbling in mixed media and combining their words with visual elements like painting and photography or even music and performance arts like dance. This experience becomes more immersive, and sometimes even interactive, for the audience because more senses are engaged. - Micro-Poetry and Short-form Poems
Micro-poetry caters to short attention spans in a culture that often scrolls by when instant gratification isn’t met. This genre is all about brevity and bite-sized nuggets that sharply distil profound concepts in as little as four lines. This trend is also on the rise because it works so well in a digital age where social media snapshots demand a profound and concise caption, and a tweet has only a limited number of characters available. - Eco-Poetry About Nature and Our Relationship with It
Eco-poetry is poetry writing that explores our complex, often exploitative, relationship with our environment. It centres nature, however, not just humans, and explores the beauty of our planet alongside pressing issues such as climate change, pollution, and destruction of natural resources. These poems often use powerful language and imagery to get readers to re-evaluate how they interact with their surroundings and encourage living sustainably in harmony with nature. - Collaborative Poems Between Several Artists
Collaborative poems are not new, but with an emerging generation moving away from isolation and looking to celebrate diverse voices, poets are joining forces and blending their unique perspectives. One example is “A collaborative plague poem” by Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton, written a few years ago at the start of the global pandemic. This collaborative piece explores many of the unique and sad ways that the pandemic impacted everyone’s life, and how friends gathering online for a virtual wedding ends with typical quarantined tasks that include,
“hand washing (my fingers so dry!), chit-
chatting on my Clorox Wiped iPhone,
bombarding heaven for the sad and the sick.”
- Personal Narratives and Confessional Poetry
Poets have always courageously laid bare their innermost thoughts and experiences, and confessional poetry writing is nothing novel. With every generation of writers, however, we see new boundaries being pushed when it comes to authenticity, with raw and intimate expression that now, more than ever before, connects people who seek truth. This is an age where the power in vulnerability is embraced, and new, fresh, unique voices are boldly taking up space. - Challenging the Rules of Language
Poets have long known that language is a construct and that bending the rules here and there is a good thing. The purpose of proper grammar and syntax is to ensure a concept is communicated well, but poetry isn’t all about knowing – it’s also about feeling and intuition. The average person isn’t preoccupied with finding grammatically precise ways to describe their feelings; they simply experience and feel the moment. Experimenting with grammar, wordplay, or neologisms takes the reader off the page and places them into an experience. - Multilingual Poetry Writing
Poetry that celebrates various languages is expected in a country as linguistically diverse as South Africa – even our national anthem features different languages. If you are writing your own piece, you can use the different languages you speak to add depth and connect with readers who can share in this rich linguistic heritage with you.
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