Prose vs. Poetry? Is Poetry more valuable than Prose?

This is the kind of question that can be answered in a line or generate an entire evening of debate!

It depends on what you are trying to communicate to the other people and for what reason. If you are giving instructions for erecting a garden shed then prose probably has the edge!

If, on the other hand, you are trying to convey the lightness of being experienced when witnessing a sunset in the mountains and your breath catches in your throat at the sheer beauty of it, then try poetry.

Horses for courses as the saying goes.

Hmm, that's a really interesting question. I'd say poetry if you want to get the sense of an idea across to your subject, because poetry has ways to convey ideas obliquely, beyond and above what the words say directly. Prose if you want to pin down precisely what you mean, because at the end of the day, expressing things in words is the only way to pin them down. But when you get down to it, philosophical prose is dense and hard to read. The more you write the less you say, the more you try to pin down your ideas, the less you actually nail them. So in a practical sense, I go with poetry.

It depends on the message you're trying to convey. I like to think that poetry is more meaningful and personal when you put a decent amount of time and effort into it. However, prose is good when you aren't trying to beat around the bush and are looking for simple communication. That's my opinion, anyway.

You do not want people to listen all the time, some things they have to figure out on there own.

That is why prose is more important.

Give them the tools, and see what they create.

Can one contain more value than the other? Isn't it the message and it's presentation that lends the form it's worth? hmmmm...

very confusing situation. lookup with yahoo. that could help!

it depends...