While social media is often the source of the things about which I post every day, I still tend to hold a fairly dim view of most “influencers.” Not the creatives, not the ones making something like art or music, but the vapid, self-aggrandizing ones who are screwing up young people with the unattainable appearance of perfection. Well, this young poet is a wonderful tonic to those toxic posters. This is the sweet, sensitive, relatable poetry by writer Whitney Hanson. In addition to having absolutely hypnotic eyes, young Hanson’s written words make her even more beautiful. Her understanding of love and loss and heartbreak and grief goes way beyond her years, but there’s something of self-forgiveness, even in her darkest works. She seems to have turned being human into an art form.

Some reviewers have dismissed Hanson’s work, calling it “Instagram poetry” because it’s short and instantly understandable, but I think she’s just a poet for a new generation of readers. Look as the beautiful simplicity of this train of thought:

Home by Whitney Hanson
“today i found a hole in the ground
and i thought to myself
someone must have lived there

“today i found a hole in a tree
and i thought to myself
someone must have lived there

“today i found a hole in an apple
and i thought to myself
someone must have lived there

“today i found a hole in my heart
and i thought to myself
someone must have lived there

“holes don’t make us empty
they make us a home.”

You can follow Whitney Hanson on her website and on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.