There are an abundant amount of modern day female poets that must be acknowledged. If I were to pursue research into all of the women deserving of acknowledgement, this article would most likely equal in length to that of ‘War and Peace’. Here are five poets I believe make a difference in different and complex ways. Five poets who exploit the lack of justices in society for women and for people of colour. Poets who explore heartbreak and exploit the hardships of love. The pain of having a mental illness. I, myself cannot relate to each and every single one of these individual’s eloquently performed or written poetry. Though I do hope that whoever is reading this finds a poet who is relatable.
Poetry is a tool, a weapon and to relate to a poem is incredibly fulfilling.
1 . Rupi Kaur
Rupi Kaur is a published poet (you can buy ‘Milk and Honey’ here) born in Punjab, India – she later immigrated to Canada. Kaur is notorious for writing about heartbreak, femininity and sexual assault. Moreover, she is commonly praised for her works on the topic of being raised as an immigrant in a struggling immigrant family. She writes “They have no idea what it is like / to lose home at the risk of / never finding home again”. In her published collection of poetry, ‘Milk and Honey’, Kaur teaches women to not rely on others to make them whole. She writes the importance of empowering oneself. There is almost an inherent underlying focus on self-love throughout many of her poems, to which any woman in this society could relate to due to the intense scrutiny women are subjected to in regard to their physical appearance.
2. Aman Batra
Aman Batra is an Indian-American, alike to Kaur, she is a child of immigrants. Batra is a spoken word poet. Stumbling upon her spoken word performances – in spite not at all being able to relate to her troubles, I was incredibly impressed and felt educated after listening to her poetry. This, after all, is what many should feel after listening to a poem, or any creative piece. It was Batra’s poem ‘Here’ that I first listened to which evoked me to binge on more of her pieces, to listen to what she had to say. It is in my view that it is not only here words that are poignant and eloquently crafted, it is the way in which she performs them with such magnetic energy that almost makes me feel as though I, myself have once felt these struggles. It makes me want to go out and make a difference. In ‘Here’, Batra exploits white privilege and illustrates the hardships of being a woman, in particular – a woman of colour. Batra speaks “There is a reason why the Siri on an iPhone has a woman’s voice. She only speaks when spoken to. Just me on this stage is an act of defiance.” You can explore more from Aman Batra [Here].
3. Yrsa Daley Ward
Yrsa Daley Ward, to me, is the epitome of raw class. The actor, author, model and poet is of the mixed West Indian and West African heritage. Her poetic works have been exhibited and she tours globally. She currently has a published work out: ‘Bone’. Ward produces raw pieces that comments on the toils of love, self love. Ward’s poems, to me, are the type of poems that leave you feeling warm and understood. She crafts words about love that demonstrate the sheer agonies that can come with love without over-romanticising the subject. Without producing a piece that glorifies the pain of love, her piece instead sheds light on pain yet makes the reader realise that pain is apart of growing. These ideas might be illustrated from one of her lines of poetry “There are parts of you that want the sadness. Find them out. Ask them why”. I recommend her to anybody who desires to seek comfort in their pain rather than blaming themselves for it.
4. Blythe Baird
Blythe Baird is a 19 year old actress and published spoken word poet. I stumbled upon her poetry while browsing the ‘Button Poetry’ channel. Baird is notorious for her feminist poems, her feminist works. Baird is widely known in particular for her poem spoken in 2014 ‘Girl Code 101’ in which she addressed a lack of representation of strong, powerful women in a male dominated society. Her ideas marked through her words in which she questions whether or not it says something about her that she feels “pretty in a dress” but “powerful in a suit”. As, a suit is perceived as masculine – yet she only feels powerful in this attire. There is a hard hitting line in this poem: “Give me a God I can relate to” which was soon to become the title of her published work. However, the way I came across her work was through her poem ‘Pocket Sized Feminism’. In this poem Baird broke down the stigma around opinionated women. She creates a powerful image when she states that society desires a certain submission of women, “wallpaper women”. As a result of this, sometimes women are afraid of speaking up about issues. This could be interpreted through her powerfully crafted line “Some days, I want people to like me more than I want to change the world.”. It must also be commented upon that Baird also exploits the world’s obsession with getting thin, with being thin and diets in her poem ‘When the Fat Girl Gets Skinny‘. As a result, she tells her audience about the dangers of invisible eating disorders, the disorder is invisible as the sufferer is sometimes seen to have the ‘desirable’ body – a ‘healthy’ body. Baird speaks of how “anorexia was the most interesting thing about me [her]”. You can explore more about Baird [here].
5. Brenna Twohy
Brenna Twohy is a spoken word poet who is mostly known for her poem, ‘Anxiety, A Ghost Story’ in which it could be perceived that she uses an allegory of a haunted house and a horror amusement park to encapsulate how it feels to be a sufferer of anxiety. Twohy crafts metaphors that critique the irrational mind. “…Maybe…heading to the ‘deadly doom slide’ isn’t the best possible course of action.” And “If you steal a camera from your creepy neighbour’s basement and all the pictures you take show bad things happening… stop taking pictures”. Both of these quotes from this piece have a certain mocking tone that illustrates to those lucky enough to not be a sufferer of anxiety just how hard it is for anxious people to ignore themselves if they are being irrational. Twohy also exposes the sexual exploitation of women in porn and the dangers of hyper-masculinity in her poem ‘Fantastic Breasts and Where To Find Them’. Twohy speaks that “The first time” she was “…held by a man” she loved “by the wrists” and called a “whore” by him – she didn’t think “run”, she thought “this is just like the movies”. Twohy scrutinises hyper-masculinity and it’s toxicity and I’m so down for it.
