Thoughts on Poetry

To have great poets, there must be great audiences. "Walt Whitman

Poetry means different things to different people.

Wikipedia has countless references, dissections into major groups (or genres), then sub genres, basic elements (such as rhythm,meter,metrical patterns), poetic form, etc.. We could talk for days on Wikipedias' references alone, but let me sum up their discourse with these few words:

Poetry often uses particular forms and conventions to expand the literal meaning of the words, or to evoke emotional or sensual responses.

Webster defines: writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound and rhythm.

I can clearly remember dissecting and examining the parts of a frog in high school Biology class, but the impression of dissecting the poem was far less.

Never the less, Poetry is a much studied and referenced topic.

You can even take courses ($360.- infinite) on How to write poetry.

Poetry is simply "Art" expressed in words. I really don't think anyone taught Michelangelo Buonarroti how to paint, nor would I want to dissect his painting "Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel" into groups and sub groups for my definition of its' meanings. No, I just like to look at it. Just like I like to read good poems.

To me(beyond natural talent) it is all about practice, how much you do determines how good you are. Of course we can "paint by numbers" and produce something like Picasso, or "write by numbers" and produce a "lliad & Odyessey"; that one is for the teachers "who can't do it so they teach it".

The discourse or study of poetry is enormous.

Poetry is not so much a visual art as it is an emotional or intellectual art.

I salute all the greats, and those to come, that have and will inspire countless generations.

So, there you have my thoughts on poetry; What are yours?