What makes a poem a poem?

a poem is something you will never write, because there are no words right enough that explain our feelings about a kitten, love, etc.

We almost can write a poem, but that's as close as it gets.

Just like love....what is it?

For me a poem has to have rhythm. It doesn't necessarily have to rhyme but it needs to hit my emotions. I think clarity of expression is important as well. I don't like to second guess what I'm reading about. I always look for what I term "poetic gems"in the text.

A poem is a leaf thet swirls down from a tree

and the wind that carries it off to the far away sea.

A poem is a kitten that pounces on bugs

poems are like really heartfelt tight hugs.

A poem is a story, a song, and a psalm,

something that soothes, a tonic, a balm.

Poetry is you my fiend, and me; and between

is imagination that stretches *** far as we can see.

Poems like children

Wither without love's hand

Words fail to thrive

When no one reads them.

Prose is the neighbor's

Noisy upstart

But a poem is a child

You hold in your heart.

A poem is a poem, when it invokes something in you with words alone. An image, emotion, person, place, time. A poem is not a poem when it is empty. It is nothing but a neatly arranged pile of words.

heartbeat

..

listen to your heartbeat,

how it skips now

and again

runs faster

slows down

...

feel and measure your breaths

do you find a natural rhythm in these things?

are they what creates life in you?

it is the same for a poem,

a poem becomes a poem when it is silent

yet fills the room with it's presence

Condensing of words, poetic structures and tools, especially metaphors and flow/rhythm of the words. Obviously, the lack of would make for something disguised but not really. Something I wrote awhile back:

Words

My thoughts arrive- not in

nouns and verbs and predicates,

but phrases- phrases alive, singing

waiting to be heard and understood

No great American novel I will pen

for cryptic are my words, meanings many

but very few, for fillers never fulfill their name

they only whitewash, at best flaw covers

Give me but seventeen syllables

and I will give you a real taste of life

that you will never, yes, never forget

for words said well, speak well

So choose, choose your reading

but remember that a single page

penned well, will lift you, soar you high

when a poet chooses well his words

a poem is a poem when it truly comes from your heart for a heart

a poem is not a poem when it does not come from your heart for a heart

Thanks for loving my work

love care and hugs

Blessing

Zahid form Pakistan

Yey! Nick Flint. And if you see it as a piece of writing arranged in lines which usually have a regular rhythm which may or may not rhyme, then you can consider it a poem.

A poem is a poem if you call it a poem.