What is a Poem? Closing out National Poetry Month with a poetic delineation

From: Coast weekly | Date: May 1, 2002| Author: | Copyright information

Much of what's written and published today by America's poets is written in free (non-rhyming) verse. If a poem doesn't rhyme, you may ask, what makes it a poem?

A poem is concentrated language that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. It's writing that gets alchemical and enters the realm of mystery. American poet Donald Hall has called poetry "the unsayable said." A poem takes words nearly beyond the bounds of themselves, almost to where they cannot go. If the soul could speak, we would hear poetry. It's a mix of the ordinary and the extraordinary. Perhaps our best poets are really ...

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