What is a poem?

[rayheinrich]

People fall all over themselves trying to define what a poem is. I have a very pragmatic method: If it's got less than 200 words, it's a poem; and if it's got more than a thousand it's fiction. (People who write long poems may want to cheat and bump those numbers up a bit.) For that stuff in the middle, you may want to use a term like prose-poem, but I say just flip a coin. And don't go bringing up stuff like the Iliad; unless you believe in those Greek gods, it's definitely fiction. The cool thing about this method is that it's correct about 95% of the time. 95% is more than good enough for me.

[CRNDLSM]

I think this makes my resume a poem! More a haiku though prolly

[RiverNotch]

Don't be silly. A poem is a kind of fruit where the actual fruity bits are enveloped in thick and fleshy floral bits, like apples.

[Tiger the Lion]

A poem is the ugliest of truths conveyed in the prettiest way. Well, sometimes.

[busker]

A pome is a false fruit ….
Who does NOT believe in Zeus? He died for our sins.

[Quixilated]

A poem is words that have been distilled until they are in their most potent form.

[Tiger the Lion]

A poem is a dissertation dressed as a doodle.

[dukealien]

A poem is a song without the music, and a painting with neither shapes nor colors.

As to length, I would assert that "The Lady of Shalott"1 is a poem (though also fiction) while "The Charge of the Light Brigade"2 is surely a poem, and not fiction.

1 - 1,017 words, and let's not even talk about the Iliad.

2 - 260 words, no one would wish it longer.

[RiverNotch]

A pome is a false fruit ….
Who does NOT believe in Zeus? He died for our sins.

A false fruit for some is an accessory fruit for others. Though I'm sure you misspelled it: a poem is a kind of fruit, a pome wordplay.

[Fearful Symmetry]

I’ve always been partial to Marianne Moore’s take on poems — “imaginary gardens with real toads in them”.

To be honest, though, I’d have to be convinced of the value of classifying what is and isn’t a poem. Unless it’s a librarian asking 

[RiverNotch]

The real distinction isn't between what is and isn't a poem, anyway. It's between what is and isn't worth reading xD

[rayheinrich]

On September 14th four years ago I had this idea to set a once-a-year reminder
in google calendar to post "What is a poem?" in the Pigpen poetry discussion.
It haunted me for the last few years, but then bingo! This year I actually got to do it.

I think of it as one of those Zen koan questions that when attempted might cause enlightenment.

Hmm, well, maybe next year.

---

I’ve always been partial to Marianne Moore’s take on poems — “imaginary gardens with real toads in them”.

Yes, I like that Marianne Moore quote as well.
Here's a link to the whole poem for anyone interested:
https://poets.org/poem/poetry

To be honest, though, I’d have to be convinced of the value of classifying what is and isn’t a poem. Unless it’s a librarian asking 

That might be a good rule of thumb:
"Don't categorize until you've found a use for it."

I've also noticed that flowers are never that impressed when I know their names,
even the Latin names don't seem to have much effect.

[rayheinrich]

I think this makes my resume a poem! More a haiku though prolly

I guess I was thinking people would do a little pre-filtering and
just bring me hunks of creative writing to use this method on.
I can see that this method breaks down pretty fast if people go
out there and pour whole newspapers, reams of AD copy, YouTube
comments, tax forms, etc. into it.

Though some of that ad copy ain't so bad, some of it makes pretty
good "found already made" poems.

[Lizzie]

Poetry is mental discipline. It's bonsai. Taking a conceit, story, theme, or mood and expressing it's essence in the fewest words possible. 

It's the genie in the lamp: phenomenal cosmic powers...itty-bitty living space.

[tun]

People fall all over themselves trying to define what a poem is. I have a very pragmatic method: If it's got less than 200 words, it's a poem; and if it's got more than a thousand it's fiction. (People who write long poems may want to cheat and bump those numbers up a bit.) For that stuff in the middle, you may want to use a term like prose-poem, but I say just flip a coin. And don't go bringing up stuff like the Iliad; unless you believe in those Greek gods, it's definitely fiction. The cool thing about this method is that it's correct about 95% of the time. 95% is more than good enough for me.

OK look
a Poet is somebody who says a thing (Verse)
this said thing (Verse)
is intended to participate in beauty
by creating and achieving a 'unity of effect'
in the finite (formally) organized utterance (speech)
which is not enduring to a point
that it cannot be heard by the ear in a single sitting
the effect (inclusion in beauty)
is intentional
in the sense that it represents the being of the speaker
inhabiting and experiencing
a particular feeling of self
as being in a sense at the time
the utterance represents harmony justice and proportion
in the simultaneous awareness
as combinatorial potential
of both music and meaning
thoroughly unified in the integral composition
where those formal properties of words
expressible and identifiable
in thought and in feeling
are spontaneously alloyed
with the subtle and with the inexpressible and unthinkable
properties and values of those same words
in the revelation
of both consciously and of unconsciously felt
energetic correspondences
developing into the superinduction
of the coincident experience
of meaning and of beauty.