Poetry Defined?

[Terri2]

Poetry is a hard concept to define. Most of us know it when we see it, but if we tried to offer a definition for it, we have a lot of trouble.

How do you define poetry? What is poetry?

[bchbmjohn9]

whenever someone asks me to define poetry, I simply tell them it is written feeling. I know that seems generic, but it is true.

[msstroda]

I tell people that poetry to me is a feeling written down that enables others to feel, really FEEL what the poem is about.

[daclawson2]

Poets are crazy people with guns.
Those guns are poems.
Those guns shoot the truth
and other people are scared of the truth.
So they label poets as crazy.

[knightss]

Why would He put us in a world
Of such extreme beauty, hate, love, and malignance
If it weren?t for us to grow
A poetic heart, artistic in nature
To grasp and understand
The perplexity of beauty

The sorrow and pain
That makes beauty all the more spectacular
To love and lose
To grow and change
Poetry is not only one, sitting and writing
Poetry is the world at large
Poetry, my friends, is the essence of our being.


There you go, a little prose on the thought

[Linda]

you wrote that didnt you? very nice.

[DuchessAngel37]

That was beautiful knightss. And I agree with you completely bchbmjohn9. It's really the only way to describe it in terms that everyone will understand.

[knightss]

you wrote that didnt you? very nice.

yes and thank you

[NSUSA]

I think you can only try and define poetry with poetry. It's hard to define.

[spooninmybrain]

some interesting definitions can be found on sites like ubu[dot]com and
lyrikline[dot]org
and that is just a start.

Poetry is more, much more than just written thoughts or written feelings...

Indeed: words are flowers that can be scenting but can be stinking too, words are weapons and it's up to the poet to use the weapons and flowers in such a way that it seems to make a sense for somebody....

read also Hlebnikov, Van Ostayen, Waugh, the beat poets, Appolinaire....
tooo much to write here...