Writings - What's Poetry?

 Last week I asked the question 'why poetry?' without saying what poetry is! 

Poetry -  is a type of literature, or artistic writing, that attempts to stir a reader's imagination or emotions. The poet does this by carefully choosing and arranging language for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. Some poems, such as nursery rhymes, are simple and humorous.

A pretty broad definition which I choose to interpret as broadly as possible, however, I prefer structure in my poetry as it helps me create. Stephen Fry describes poetry in his book 'The Hippopotamus'. 

A poem is made of real words and real things. You start with the base physical world and your own base physical self. If some meaning or beauty comes out of it, then that is, I suppose, the wonder and relief of art. You want gold, you have to go down a mine to hack it out of the ground, you have to sweat your gut out in a filthy forge to smelt it: it doesn't fall in gleaming sheets from the bar of heaven. You want poetry, first, you have to muck in with humanity, you have to fight with paper and pencil for weeks and weeks until your head bleeds: verses aren't channeled into your head by angels or muses or sprites of nature. 

As usual he has a magical way with words and defines poetry far better than I can. 

I shared an example of what I consider to be good poetry by Charles Causley - The Ballad of the Breadman. It is a retelling of the birth of Jesus and done in such a way as to make it accessible to all. 

I'm sure some will say that it is blasphemous or at least irreligious but sometimes life's stories need a degree of unpacking for us lesser mortals and using plain language can be of great assistance. 

When I read the ballad I can't help but smile. That is a function of poetry for me - to entertain, to explain and to generate emotion. 

God Bless