I ran into this poem “First Date Questions” on TikTok. Sophia Thhakur, the author and performer, is one a stage in a glittery, skin tight dress, with glam makeup on reciting her poem which has been posted in 3 parts because of it’s length. The video has a black and white filter on it and hundred of thousands of views.
I really liked the poem. And it did make me think this is what TikTok poetry could look like. She’s glammed up and beautiful, the poem is good and runs like a conversation, and through TikTok she is able to preform it and people are listening. I did realize it seems like TikTok is only listening if it’s beautiful, but I like it still so I decided to look her up, see what else she’s done. She was just named Woman of the Year by Vogue and they called her one of the worlds leading poets. She was also on Forbes 30u30. Her account is mostly about aesthetics with very few poems sprinkled in. And I’m not sure how I feel about it. Or I have mixed feelings about it.
She doesn’t have much poetry on her social media, so she’s not created a new way of social media poetry like I had hoped. But she has found success and a following which is hopeful? It’s hopeful if seeing women succeed in those ways is the goal, which sometimes it is. Maybe it’s not hopeful for the future of poetry. And maybe she’s a better poet for posting less, I enjoyed some of her lines, so maybe she’s using social media and keeping her poetry when she knows it’s good. But all these answers led me back to social media not being great.
