WHAT IS A POEM?
Most self-proclaimed poets today dont have the vaguest clue about what a poem is.
If you were to ask 1,000 writers who call themselves poets to tell you just what they think a poem is, you might get 3,000 different answers.
And then youd have to decide which of those answers was right.
Ask yourself what you think a poems is.
Is it definable?
If so, what is it?
How does one describe it?
How does one write it?
And after you think you have written one, ask yourself if its worth reading and if its worth remembering.
People who dont write poetry might say a poem has to be rhymed, in lines and stanzas, and filled with musical language.
Does this statement tell you what a poem is?
Maybe its a statement about poetry and not about poems.
Does poetry have to be musical to be poetry?
What is poetry?
What is the difference between poetry and poems?
Can one write a poem that has no poetry?
Can anyone write poetry that is not a poem?
Can any piece of writing be a poem?
When does writing become poetry?
When does poetry become a poem?
These are very intriguing questions seldom addressed today by the so-called literary establishment.
Can this literary establishment answer these questions intelligently?
Will those answers clarify and explain what poetry is, what a poem is?
Does the literary establishment even know what they are talking about?
Do well-known poets always write poems when they are writing poetry?
And when they are writing poetry, is it really poetry?
And are all of the pieces of writing in their poetry books actually poetry or poems?
If you read someones so-called poetry, can you call it poetry?
What is poetry?
Maybe it should be named so-called poetry or so-called poems or just creative writing.
Can it be called poems?
What is a poem?
How does one write a poem?
Does a poem have lines and stanzas, or lines and no stanzas, or sentences and stanzas, or sentences and paragraphs, or just lines, or just sentences, or just words, or just syllables, or just letters, or maybe just punctuation without words like the piece Hemingway wrote?
Can one write a poem without words?
How many words does a piece of writing have to have to be called a poem?
Can a poem be just one word?
How many poems does a writer have to write to earn the title of poet?
Is a poem a piece of writing that moves the reader?
Does a poem move a reader intellectually and emotinally?
If a poem moves a reader intellectually and not emotionally, is it still a poem?
If a poem doesnt move the reader at all, can it still be a poem?
If a poem has no poetry in it, is it still a poem?
What is a poem?
A poem first of all is a story with a beginning, a middle and an end but not necessarily in that order.
And today usually but not always a poem is a lyrical poem that is a short short story with a beginning, a middle and an end.
And maybe that lyrical short short story is inhabited by people just like long story poems called epics.
But a lyrical poem can also be a story about the beauty, ugliness, indifference or cruelty of nature.
A poem can be a story about anything!
A poem can be written in any writing style and still be a poem.
But for a piece of writing to be a poem it must have a beginning, a middle and an end!
A poem telling a story about a thought, a feeling, or a moments insight has a beginning, a middle and an end.
Of course any of these three parts can be implied and need not be explicitly expressed.
Most pieces of writing passed off as poems today are just fragments of poems.
They are beginnings without middles or ends.
They are beginnings lost in middles looking for an end.
They are middles and ends without beginnings
They are lines of words that neither begin nor end any complete thought or feeling let alone a story.
They are thoughtless storyless solipsistic soliloquies seemingly straight out of diaries and journals.
Can diary and journal excerpts be poems?
Sure, if they have a beginning, a middle and an end.
But almost all diary and journal writing masquerading as poems are just fragments of poems.
Poetry editors today are daily bombarded by bits and pieces of poems.
And when poetry editors do occasionally find poems in their submissions, most of these just belabor the obvious.
They do not GRAB your MIND and HEART.
GRAB means no cliches, no platitudes, no worn-out stories, no maudlin sentiments, no mawkish mumbo-jumbo-gumbo, no dead-but-not-buried hodgepodge-garbage-barrages, no elliptically elliptical musings that say nothing, no elegant excreta, no grandiloquent gobbledegook and no googoogaga.
GRAB means original stories clothed in magical language telling you something you have not heard before or telling you in a creative way and from a fresh new perspective something you already know.
GRAB centers your consciousness and kickstarts your imagination!
GRAB smax you with WOW!