Thanks to Christopher Nolan’s film, sales of Homer’s epic rose 1,400% in the weeks around release – and it’s not alone. A new audience is finding poetry, particularly (though not exclusively) through social media: a new generation of poets, particularly but not exclusively performance poets, have come to prominence through Instagram, TikTok, and other short-form video formats. But then, what is the Odyssey except social media? What social media offers these poets is a new way to gather people round the fire – and, for some, a way to get to be the one speaking at last. If poets can reach their audiences directly, then different poets may be, perhaps, given a chance not just to speak but to be heard: working-class poets, queer poets, poets who don’t fit the “male, pale and stale” classical canon.