HARD as it is to believe, there are people today who still see poetry as a literary form that elitist white men used in the past to articulate their thoughts on nature and women. But after World Poetry Day was celebrated last Thursday, people are encouraged to take another look at the genre and its potential to become a powerful force in international relations.
The last few years have seen poetry becoming a potent tool for those speaking out against social injustice and prejudice. Interestingly, most of these new poets and their admirers are millennials. One of them is Indian-Canadian Rupi Kaur, who has sold millions of her poetry books around the world.
Poetry has become so popular, especially in the Western hemisphere that last year, observers have considered it a new form of religion that believes in honesty and equality for everyone. Furthermore, with the absence of prejudice as its core value, poetry has become the preferred tool for people searching for meaningful self-expression.
Poetry has much to offer in today’s increasingly divided world. It has the power to bridge gaps between people, because it forms real connections based on our common human experiences, regardless of nationality, social status, religion or political views.
In a world where social media is often characterized as promoting only the edited highlights of a person’s life, its traditional platforms may not be the best places to share one’s innermost thoughts, worries or memories. Because of this, Lukas and Johana Sedlacek, a couple based in Prague, designed Poetizer. It is a social network for those devoted to writing, reading and sharing poetry.
“Poetizer is creating a space for poetry lovers across the globe that share the same desires and values, like freedom of speech, authenticity and the love of poetry as a form of self-expression,” said Lukas, also the site’s managing director.
“We believe that the platform will interest even those who don’t write poetry themselves,” he added.
“More and more people don’t feel free to be fully themselves on current social media sites, as they feel pressured to live up to other people’s expectations,” the co-founder explained, adding that Poetizer should serve as a safe space for the global poetry community and represent those who want to be heard in society.
Unlike other social-media platforms, Poetizer was created to suit a poet’s needs.
“When we were creating Poetizer, we primarily listened to the wishes and needs of poets,” Johana said. “The community of people interested in poetry is rapidly [expanding] around the world and they deserve their own social network built on their wishes and with no limits to their artistic expression.”
Poetizer allows users to create an account, save drafts, publish finished poems and share them with the world. Besides a news feed with new posts and the option to create poetry collections, the platform has features that allow users to be anonymous, edit text with great detail, and ask other users for feedback. All this is underscored by a minimalist design that doesn’t distract the users from the poems.
Since its launch in 2017, Poetizer now boasts of 120,000 poems written by users from 120 countries. It has encouraged people to interact with each other, regardless of their differences, and build friendships based on their common human experiences.
Poetizer can be accessed at poetizer.com and is available for download from the Apple Store and Google Play. For more information, send an email to press@poetizer.com.
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