NFT Poetry — Is now the start of a new era for poems?
Poetry has been around for ages, starting from the oral tradition and moving to the digital sphere, such as through the medium of Instagram (writers of which are termed as “Instapoets”, a move somewhat away from traditional poets and poetry). A new trend in the art world seems to be on the cusp of brushing its hands with humans’ virtual pens: NFTs.
The argument for poetry NFTs could be a pertinent one. From a historical perspective, the intermixing of different forms of art, including drawings and poetry, is widely seen. If we had to take William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Blake connected two types of artworks — his own illustrations and poems — together to form his poetry collection. It was considered a masterpiece during that time partly because of this (and, of course, his wonderful writings).
When it comes to digital art, new art forms and techniques are emerging which render the need for a new medium for art to transcend itself and retain a new mode of transmediality and intermediality. These include features such as zooming, panning, audio-inclusion, and so forth. It could also solve the problems with excessive archaic red tape.
What are NFTs?
NFTs are Non-Fungible Tokens that are unique in the blockchain world, meaning that ownership of a single digital art piece on the blockchain (NFT) is retained by one user, as opposed to copies of the same art piece. This form of tokenisation has spread from a few pixels to fields such as digital art, gaming, and photography.
Poetry as NFT
Having seen so many artists reclaim their efforts spent to produce their artwork and obtain cryptocurrency in exchange, it is difficult, to say the least, not to see NFTs spread into the literary world.
NFT writing seems to be at its conception. When skimming around NFT marketplaces (such as OpenSea, Solsea, and so forth), and even more exclusive NFT marketplaces (such as Foundation), the lack of literary NFTs is still well-apparent. However, it seems to be palpable that the NFT world will infiltrate this area barely touched in the digital art world.
For one, I usually write my poems on my phone; it is my preferred medium for one reason or another. I am sure that there are many users who opt for laptops, phones, and whatnot in order to write their literary work. Perhaps this is the next home (as a medium) for writing to start blossoming once again, even with the creation of NFT publishers.
How to mint an NFT poem
There are various NFT marketplaces that allow you to mint your own poem as an NFT. If you want to mint your poem as an NFT, one of the things you could do is create a Metamask account, create your own wallet, go to Opensea and create an account, and start minting your work. Instead of letting it gather dust (in your virtual cupboard), why not share and perhaps sell your own work?
You can also create your own collection, enabling you to keep a consistent theme if you want.
NFT writing does seem to be knocking on the door, and the current feeling is when, not if, will the cyber world open it.
N.B: I have set up a page (called Signified) to discuss such topics further. If interested, you can also follow this Twitter account and Instagram.