5 Instagram Poets to Read on Valentine’s Day

or, alternatively, 5 Instagram poets you can cry to on V-Day

So you’re scrolling through your Instagram and see a short stack of words interrupting the cat photos and ootds. You — the person who claims to be “dead inside” — stop for a moment and are suddenly overcome with emotions. You’re under a spell of words, seduced by the feeling that someone finally gets what you’re going through: the yearning, the heartbreak, the unrequited love, the fleetingness of it all. It’s true, no one knows the intricacies of love and loss quite like the Instagram poets in your feed. There’s no better time to scroll through their works, and pick up a copy of their collections, than on Valentine’s Day. Read and weep over these 5 lovely poets’ works. Your soul will thank you.

Nayyirah Waheed

Waheed is one of the original Instagram poets who helped pioneer the scene with her self-published and well-loved work, salt. Her powerful poetry focuses on love, identity, gender, and race. @nayyirah.waheed

Lang Leav

Internationally bestselling author Lang Leav provides accessible poetry about love and love lost. A sensation on Instagram, Leav’s poetry reaches across time and space and touches the hearts of thousands of online readers. @langleav

Michael Faudet

Another Instagram star, Michael Faudet talks about love and passion in elegant and raw ways that make you feel every intense emotion you’ve been burying inside. @michaelfaudet

Rupi Kaur

Perhaps the most famous Instagram poet/illustrator of them all, Rupi Kaur has drawn countless people in to reading poetry when they thought they would never understand or like it! Just ask her over 2 million followers. @rupikaur_

R.H. Sin

Representing our male poets with deeply emotional writing is R.H. Sin, a self-proclaimed “husband first,” author, and photographer based out of NYC. Clocking in with a million followers, he shares poetry about the complications of love and even shares some of his also-popular wife’s poetry on his page. @r.h.sin

Honorable Mentions

Warsan Shire
Yrsa Daley-Ward
Tyler Knott Gregson
Samantha King

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