João Cabral de Melo Neto built a poetry project that does not separate the exercise of the poem from the forms of expression of social reality and the ways of life of his community. The poet avoided talking about himself and his individuality to give way to popular stories of local characters and the needs of the community with which he identified. The objective of this work is to understand the identification that Cabral presents with popular poetry through the analysis of traits, forms and procedures of this poetry present in his work. Descriptions, comments and analyzes of some aspects of João Cabral's poems were made, in which the resumption of popular poetry procedures is perceived, such as strophic, metric and rhymic structure; presence of synalepha; narrative and dramatic nature of the verses. To support this study, works by critics of Cabral's poetry were consulted, such as João Alexandre Barbosa, Benedito Nunes, Luiz Costa Lima, Ángel Crespo, Antonio Carlos Secchin and studies on popular poetry by Segismundo Spina and João Miguel Manzolillo Sautchuk.