what is a poem?

[cacian]

in few words please define what a poem is.
you may use your poetic prowess to express what you think a poem is . :)


here is one of mine:
a poem
is for reading
when a story too long
does not get to the end.

[PeterL]

Poetry is a form that was created
Even earlier than writing was made.
Its rhythm and rhyme to poet gave aid
To remember verses for when dropped
Or wrong tells poet, he or she, should right
And trust not memory, even quite bright
Because oftimes loses itself in other
Things, especially when she is sexy.
But the best poetry is just disguised
Seduction attempt, or undisguised.

[Lokasenna]

While I, one time, of this world despaired,
Like a child bored of its oldest toy,
Then my hungry mind sought, unprepared,
For a subtle taste of truer joy,
And dwelt on sensations so sublime,
That my pregnant pen was left quite still
While my soul traversed a sea of time
And infinite space that charged my will
With such blinding storms of silent light.
I knelt naked before the godhood,
Which to my eyes burnt wondrous bright;
It flared deep within my very blood,
And forced to action my lazy art
To translate the truth I did espy:
For in that moment we stood apart,
Then my God was as naked as I.

[cacian]

very nice Peter and Loka.
i enjoyed reading your versions of what a poem is :)

[Mohammad Ahmad]

Poem is a piece of literature composed of concentrated words maybe rhymed or not rhymed put together to express emotions, feelings,etc..., tackling with either personality affairs or public.

[Ecurb]

A prose essay may be famous
So, equally, might a poem.
One is writ by Heaney, Seamus,
The other by Chomsky, Noam.

[prendrelemick]

Some writing where the lines
Don't go all the way across
The page.

[desiresjab]

Giving one concise definition of poetry is no more possible than giving one concise definition to the word run. We will all keep trying, however, often resorting to poetry itself.

Poetry is a written and oral art form, whose oral side requires no use of exact tone, as in singing, and whose written side often employs compression of thought into few words and may make use, for effect, of artificial devices such as rhyme, meter, line length and alliteration, among other techniques not consistently found in prose.

The difference between poetry and prose: A plumber and a mechanic use different tool sets, but some of the tools are the same. These days, too many mechanics are using a plumber's tool set, which is why so many new wrecks will not run. The previous examples in this thread did run quite well, I am glad to say.

[Lykren]

But, desiresjab, what is the difference in function between prose and poetry? That is where it seems your analogy breaks down.

[desiresjab]

But, desiresjab, what is the difference in function between prose and poetry? That is where it seems your analogy breaks down.

I don't know. I would have to make another run at that. I can't even really define poetry. It is true the differences I pointed out fall short. Your question of function is the more important aspect and even harder to decide, in my mind.

[YesNo]

in few words please define what a poem is.
you may use your poetic prowess to express what you think a poem is . :)


here is one of mine:
a poem
is for reading
when a story too long
does not get to the end.

I get impatient with some stories as well. Here's my view of poetry after thinking about recent threads discussing Robert Frost.


Boundless

Poetry, and even prose,
Pretends to sleep, but waits for those
Who’d play the words, unpack the sound,
Unlock the doors, unchain what’s bound,
Ride out to where they do not know
But hope it’s where their hearts would go.

[ZacheirII]

YesNo, you just dropped an Entrendre!!! that annotation goes all the way with LOVE...without having to change a thing.

[ZacheirII]

What is a Poem?
Never intensely defined by a poet
Never expressing the fiend from his pen
Never releasing the tears to be shed

Yet it defines the fury as was meant
letting loose the event that ensued
wellspring from a place without view
living beyond the reach of harness

flexible to lets words be see-through
buoyancy to grace lines for each mood

like the rhythms of a Villanelle

What is a Prose?
Structure and annotation is what keeps it alive. To express the passion and opinion backing every line. Emotions are let loose on the lines with an intention of keeping you glued to read through. Understanding of the reader is the goal that sometimes cloud the spring of the cause of writing it in the first place.

[cacian]

Some writing where the lines
Don't go all the way across
The page.

haha this is fun ;)

[desiresjab]

I get impatient with some stories as well. Here's my view of poetry after thinking about recent threads discussing Robert Frost.


Boundless

Poetry, and even prose,
Pretends to sleep, but waits for those
Who’d play the words, unpack the sound,
Unlock the doors, unchain what’s bound,
Ride out to where they do not know
But hope it’s where their hearts would go.


This poem gets an A+ from me, and you know I am a stern grader.

[desiresjab]

Amost all biological mutations are destructive. The same is true of grammatical mutations.

[cacian]

Amost all biological mutations are destructive. The same is true of grammatical mutations.

do you have an example?

[desiresjab]

do you have an example?

Everyone has them. They are not often found in good mags and we do not have to wonder why, since fixing our own is something of an obsession. There is not much future in commonly defying English grammar. Miltonic inversions were once mutations, and became very successful. Poetry mutated away from those, however. We still use them, but often remove them during editing, though sometimes they stay with brilliant success. The weirder stuff that stylistically leaves out words, cuts off phrases or concocts uncouth grammar and such, slaps an extra load on the reader right away he or she may feel is not worth it. There is always poetic license, but that is easily overused. Before there can be a great poem there must be a readable one. I believe that nearly all great poems in English that I know of use grammar that flows naturally and is essentially technically correct, with here and there a minor lapse or a puposeful instance of the gainful emplyment of poetic license. At times I have employed all of the techniques mentioned with success. I normally figure if readers have to guess what I am talking about, I need revision. If I feel uncomfortable with a phrase, I should assume they will too. There are schools of thought which disagree. I appreciate poems of great clarity, which does not always mean easy, and so my philosophy usually tries to write that kind.

Even A deep dish. Lumps in it. I can't taste my mother. Hoo! I know the spoon. Sit in my mouth, is grammatically sensible, and comes from the mind of Roethke's toddler.

[YesNo]

YesNo, you just dropped an Entrendre!!! that annotation goes all the way with LOVE...without having to change a thing.



This poem gets an A+ from me, and you know I am a stern grader.

Thanks, ZacheirII and desiresjab!

Lately, I've been wondering about sound, meaning and language without anything specific about the writing being classified as poetry. I'm not sure where to look for further information.

[desiresjab]

Lately, I've been wondering about sound, meaning and language without anything specific about the writing being classified as poetry. I'm not sure where to look for further information.

I suspect that the audio-hallucinations of schizophrenics and drug addicts bear some commonality to what poetry does to human consciousness on a deep level. Maybe R.D. Lang has something to say on that, I cannot remember specifically. My mind needs about another three hundred years to become a carded, first class citizen of the intellect. Excuse me for rambling. I wish I had those years though. I would only ask to retain such passion as I myself still retain, which is a vastly different fantasy from starting over again with the comprehension one has accrued up to that point. Give me a tottering three hunded years, then, if nothing else--I mean, I will take them with no longer a youth's natural intent of conquering the world but with an old man's propensity to observe and untangle it from within.

[YesNo]

I remember reading R. D. Lang years ago, but forgot what it was about. I saw one of Edward Sapir's texts on language and almost bought it on Saturday, but then I wondered if that is the best place to start.

I am at the untangle-it-from-within stage of life as well.