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TEENS BOND
OVER
POETRY
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COPYRIGHT 2021, NEWSDAY LLC, LONG ISLAND, VOL. 81, NO. 199
 SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 2021 | NORTH HEMPSTEAD-OYSTER BAY
N1

YVONNE ALBINOWSKI

E2

E17
 In this issue
E2 In today’s LI Life cover COVERSTORY
story, you’ll find a pas-
sion for poetry —
kindled via Instagram by
teens on Long Island.
LI LIFE N1

In Act 2, we share the

stories of older Long
Islanders who aren’t
letting the pandemic get
in the way of romance.

Today’s Faith calendar

lists in-person and virtual
events, and the Senior
calendar continues to
offer virtual events.

This issue does not in-

clude the regular
exploreLI Top 10 and
Community Calendar;
the Veterans calendar;
or the Town Agenda and
Police Beat.

Remember that every

Newsday subscription
includes full 24/7 digital
access, so you can re-
ceive continually up-
dated news and informa-
tion on your phone,
tablet or computer via

YOUNGPOETSUNITE VIA INSTAGRAM / SANJANA LODHA

our website and app,
along with the electronic
“e-edition” of the paper.

An Instagram poem by Young Poets Unite co-founder Sanjana Lodha tackles environmental issues. \ Video: newsday.com/LILife

Expressing I
BY JOE DZIEMIANOWICZ
Special to Newsday
newsday.com

t’s a sunny Satur-

Want to see your day afternoon in

themselves
photo in the next March and a
NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 2021

LI Life Reader dozen Long Island

Photo Essay? For students are huddled
consideration, in a Zoom meeting.
submit your There’s a rhyme and a rea-
photos at son for the get-together, and it
nwsdy.li/ emerges as the conversation
courses from Emily Dickinson
ReaderPhotos. Teens’ poetry Instagram creates a space for processing life and Maya Angelou to Robert
Frost, Gary Turk and Amanda
 COVERSTORY newsday.com/lilife
E3

LI LIFE N1
YOUNGPOETSUNITE VIA INSTAGRAM / AYESHA NADEEM
YOUNGPOETSUNITE VIA INSTAGRAM

One of the poems from @YoungPoetsUnite’s Instagram. The group invites submissions A poem by Ayesha Nadeem, a junior at Herricks High School, explores the themes of
via direct message; accepted poems are then artistically rendered for sharing. human connections, as do two of her favorite poets, Rumi and Emily Dickinson.

ON THE COVER. Sanjana

Lodha, left, and Sneha Singhi
co-founded Young Poets Unite,
a youth organization that uses
Instagram to promote poetry.

Gorman.
“Amanda is young, like us,”
one attendee says. “She’s

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paving a way for young minds.”
Another teen unmutes and
gives a thoughtful shoutout to
Dickinson’s poem, “There Is
Another Sky.” “She’s trying to

NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 2021

show that there’s a happy place
in everyone’s mind,” she says.
“In a bad time, you can go
there.”
YVONNE ALBINOWSKI

Welcome to Young Poets

Unite, a youth organization
launched last summer by two
students at Herricks High
School in New Hyde Park.
The weekend meetup was
Sydnee Pai, left, vice president and designer for Young Poets Unite, spends time with Sanjana Lodha and Sneha Singhi, co-presidents of
See COVER STORY on E4 the group. Founded last summer, the organization aims to be a place “where teenagers can spread and celebrate their love for poetry.”
 E4
COVERSTORY

UNITED IN POETRY. @Young Poets Unite, where poems

Poetry’s language
LI LIFE N1

are posted nearly daily, is a place where teenagers can spread

and celebrate their love for poetry. The group hosts online
workshops and provides prompts to prod budding poets.
COVER STORY from E2

their latest “poetry night.” The

fact that the “night” was held
at 3 p.m. wasn’t lost on the two
co-founders and co-presidents
Sneha Singhi, 16, and Sanjana
Lodha, 15, who are also
cousins. They chalked it up to
poetic license.

BUILDING BRIDGES
While other shut-ins baked
sourdough and banana bread

YOUNGPOETSUNITE VIA INSTGRAM

and sewed masks to keep
productive during the pan-
demic, Singhi, a junior, and
Lodha, a sophomore, cooked
up the organization on their
own from scratch.
“We decided to take our love
of poetry to another level,”
said Singhi, who lives in
Roslyn Heights.
It was a way for them to
build a bridge to span the
physical and emotional dis-
tance of isolation using words,
creativity and self-expression.
“Community and connection
have always been important to
me,” said Lodha, who lives in
Albertson. “I’m a Girl Scout,
and we always find ways to
connect people across Long
Island, the state and even
across the country. Our group
is about connecting through
YOUNGPOETSUNITE VIA INSTGRAM

poetry.”
The mission of Young Poets
Unite is noted at youngpoet-
sunite123.weebly.com. It’s a
place “where teenagers can
spread and celebrate their love
for poetry.”
Those celebrations happen
through online workshops and
gatherings sponsored by the
group as well as on Instagram
at @YoungPoetsUnite, where

YVONNE ALBINOWSKI
poems are posted on a nearly
daily basis. Contributors are
typically high school and col-
lege students.
newsday.com

In January, the organization

published an online book, a
collection of many of the Sydnee Pai, the designer for Young Poets Unite, says that creating
poems so far. It’s free to Kindle backgrounds for poems allows her give her interpretation of the work.
users, otherwise it’s 99 cents.
NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 2021

The group is pledging in- rock-star status after delivering tends to be brief and set
come from downloads — so far her work, “The Hill We against backgrounds with
there have been about 15 — to Climb,” at President Joe delightful illustrations. Themes
YOUNGPOETSUNITE VIA INSTGRAM

NAMI, National Alliance on
Mental Illness. YPU has stick-
ers for sale in the works, and
proceeds will go to the same
good cause.
The arrival of Young Poets
Unite has come at an oppor-
tune time. Poetry is having a
moment, thanks to 23-year-old
poet Gorman, who ascended to
Biden’s inauguration. Long
story haiku-short, Gorman
made poetry cool.
Instagram poetry, or Instapo-
etry, which grew out of social
media and typically consists of
bite-sized works and accompa-
nying artwork, has also clearly
influenced Young Poets Unite.
The group’s posted poetry
covered by YPU poems run
the gamut from whimsical (sea
horses) to serious (COVID-19
isolation).
“I’ve always had an affection
for poetry, starting from fourth
grade,” said Lodha. Her inter-
est has grown thanks to high
school English classes and her
own independent reading.

One of the @YoungPoetsUnite poems, which tend to be brief with illustrations that
can be submitted by the authors or designed by Young Poets Unite.
Young Poets Unite has published a book of poems from its @YoungPoetsUnite Instagram, pledging
income from downloads — so far about 15 — to NAMI, National Alliance on Mental Illness.
She believes poetry gets a
bum rap. “People are always
saying, ‘Oh, poetry, it’s so
stupid.’ ‘It’s hard to under-
stand.’ Why do we even have
to study it?’ ”
‘A WAY TO CALM DOWN’
But before the pandemic,
and especially during the
isolation of COVID-19, poetry
offered solace and escape.
“Poetry allowed me to ac-
YOUNG POETS UNITE
cess my more creative side,”
she said. “It was a way to calm
down and just exit all of the
craziness from the world, to be
honest.” That chaos included
the death of her uncle from
COVID-19.
“I can’t leave my house. I
can’t see my friends,” she said.
“But I can write down my
feelings and express myself.”
And others can tap into them.
“There’s an emotional qual-
COVERSTORY
YOUNGPOETSUNITE VIA INSTAGRAM
Writers can submit signed or anonymous poems to @YoungPoetsUnite’s Instagram,
which has more than 1,100 followers and nearly 250 poems from around the world.
non that kids are into,” Braje
said.
To be posted at @Young
PoetsUnite, contributors send
poems via direct message that
are vetted by the administra-
tors. Poets can sign their work
or post anonymously. They can
create their own design or
Young Poets Unite will tackle
that task for them.
That’s where Sydnee Pai, the
organization’s vice president
and designer, works her cre-
ative and graphic design magic
with Canva.
“We give people the option
to choose the design,” ex-
plained Pai, 16, a junior at
YOUNG POETS UNITE
Herricks who lives in New
Hyde Park. “Some people have
their own interpretation of the
poem. When I give a poem a
certain look, it takes on my
interpretation of the poem.”
Pai says she came to really
enjoy reading poetry in high
ity that makes poetry one of school. Like the group’s co-
the best ways to connect,” said founders, she contributes work
Jackie Braje, program director on an occasional basis. That
for the Poetry Society of New means when she can squeeze
York, a nonprofit promotional time for creative writing in
organization based in Manhat- between the demands of
tan. “This is a great time for physics, history and math
kids to be exploring poetry.” classes.
Along with Gorman, a singu- Herricks High School Eng-
lar writer who has shone her lish teacher Tom Mattson,
own brilliant spotlight on who’s not directly involved
poetry, Instagram poetry is
another “modern day phenome- See COVER STORY on E6
newsday.com/lilife
E5
LI LIFE N1
YOUNGPOETSUNITE VIA INSTAGRAM
Raves for faves
A
sk the Young Poets
Unite team to name
poets they can’t get
enough of, and Rupi Kaur, an
Instapoet whose works are
“minimalist and filled with
positive messages,” says
Sanjana Lodha, comes up
often. Here, they share three
more favorites.
SANJANA LODHA
Poet pick: Mary Oliver
Read this: “The Summer
Day.” “She allows readers to
see beauty in the simplicity of
the world. It made me want
to look more deeply into
things that were around me.”
newsday.com
SNEHA SINGHI
Poet pick: Maya Angelou
Read this: “Still I Rise.” “Her
poetry is so inspiring. I love
some of her work, especially
NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, MARCH 21, 2021
her activist poems.”
SYDNEE PAI
Poet pick: William Henry
Davies
Read this: “Leisure.” “He
really focuses on the details
of nature. This poem makes
me makes me think about
my grandparents’ house in
Australia.”
— JOE DZIEMIANOWICZ
 E6
COVERSTORY newsday.com/lilife
Now enrolling patients
for a Minimally Invasive
LI LIFE N1

An illustration from

Facelift research study. Young Poets Unite’s

book, a “novel”
featuring poems
that have been
contributed to the
group’s Instagram.
The book is free to
Kindle users.

Coming
together

YOUNG POETS UNITE

in poetry
COVER STORY from E4
with the student organization, ex-
2164109701
pressed enthusiasm about it and its
mission.
There are so many forms of poetry
and poets out there to discover. In-
stapoetry can be a gateway to a deeper
dive into poetry and lead someone to
explore the likes of Emily Dickinson,
Walt Whitman or Theodore Roethke,
to name a few, acknowledged Mattson.
“That has value,” he said.
“The thing about poetry is that it can
inspire a visceral reaction,” Mattson
said, adding that that initial attraction
can reverberate.
“I’m 45, and what got me interested
in poetry early on was Jim Morrison,”
Mattson said about The Doors lead
vocalist, songwriter and poet. “Looking
back he’s not a great poet, but he got
me interested in poetry even so.”
A TWO-WAY CONNECTION
The link between song lyrics and
poetry isn’t lost on Ayesha Nadeem, a
16-year-old junior at Herricks High
School who contributes to Young Poets
newsday.com
of her Young Poets Unite poems. It
begins: “Somedays are more difficult
than others, somedays a fake smile is
the only smile . . . ” It concludes:
“Somedays you’ll meet a true friend,
somedays you’ll feel whole again.”
She said her plans are to continue to
contribute works “to see how I’ve
grown in poetry.”
At Young Poets Unite, the founders
are monitoring growth of the group.
There are currently more than 1,100
followers and nearly 250 poems. About
12% are from Herricks classmates.
Authors have a showcase for their
work, while readers get to savor it. It’s
a two-way connection.
“When Sneha and I were talking
about this in the beginning we both
decided to create a platform that lets
people come together,” said Lodha.
The co-founders figured that they
could spark interest close to home and
with their friends and fellow students.
Thanks to the power of social media,
the reach of the group has extended
beyond Long Island, they say, to in-
clude India, the United Kingdom,
Europe, Asia and South America.

Unite on an occasional basis. Saurabh Singhi, 47, who works in

“I’ve always had a love of music, and
poetry and music go hand in hand,”
Newsday’s Best Bets Newsletter said Nadeem, who lives in Roslyn.
“What makes it unique is the way you
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finance, said that he is “pretty im-
pressed by the way” his daughter
Sneha and Sanjana have created and
nurtured YPU. “I give credit for people

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can express yourself in it. You can use
the words and the rhythms of the
words. Plus it’s creative; it’s a stress-
reliever.”
Her favorite poets include Rumi and
Dickinson. Although the former, a 13th
century Turkish-Persian mystic poet,
and the latter, a 19th century American
poet, seem worlds away from each
other, Nadeem points out their overlap-
ping themes about human connec-
tions.
She covers the same subject in one
for taking initiative. They created it
from the ground up.”
While not a “poetry die-hard,” he
grew up in India reading William
Wordsworth and appreciates the power
of poetry. That’s amplified during a
pandemic. “When you’re not able to
interact, they’re even more valuable.”
Sneha agrees. “I feel like poetry is
such a personal thing. We didn’t know
people would share their work,” she
said. “We’re definitely very pleased.
We’re also really surprised.”