What is true poetry?

People have different views and different "rules" of poetry, so are there specific rules that apply to all poetry? Can anybody help me see what poetry really is? I know that different styles have different requirements and tweak the meaning of true poetry. But all I've ever heard is that I don't write true poetry. If anybody can help me, I'll gladly take it. And thanks, if you do help.

To me poetry is pretty vague. It's a summation of feelings, thoughts, pictures, emotions etc. There are various styles of poetry. Some people don't think that prose is poetry, but more like a short story or a journal entry, while some see it as just another form.

I don't think there are any specific rules personally unless of course you do formed poetry, then the form itself has rules. Otherwise for me, poetry that I like has to move me, make me feel something, or paint an incredible picture that wows me. Sometimes I get so lost in people's words that I don't think about rhythm, rhyme, meter (the technical portions of poetry).

Okay, that helps me. Thank you. Thank you so much. Anybody else have any input?

Poetry is as much organized as is a thought. Im very thorough with my poetry, but only as thorough as its original thought. I only write my poetry in a style of... Well, freestyle. Once I write it, I don't go back and edit it. Because I believe poetry should be a compete thought, in its original intended output.

Using that logic, I don't believe there should be any specific way of writing poetry format wise, but I do believe there is a mindset that poetry should be written under, which is one that isnt false, and one that the subject content you are writing about is relevant.
i.e. Don't be a happy man writing about anger, or a clueless man writing about love. Write about what is relevant at the time, in order to get the purest justification in your writings

Okay thank you

To me, poetry is imagination and emotions written in words. Its not always sure of itself and its sometimes vague but it is always real.

To me poetry is what u feel or what is your perspective for a particular stuff, say happiness or life..

Yeah, I agree with that...

Does anyone else have a say?

For myself, poetry is experience put into words in a way that it captures a message. I constantly rewrite and even after publishing I feel it should have been tweaked.
i disagree about not writing certain things. No person is always happy or angry, a person who is happy should be able to tap into past experiences of anger; in fact, I generally do not attempt to express strong emotion until later. The emotion needs to be felt to the fullest, not sent to the background by trying to dissect it or reduce it to verbal concepts. Later, after it pours through you, you can set it down in words.

To me poerty is hiddens feeling and true emotions that we are sometimes scared to show ( we all hide them for diffrent reasons)

somtimes its easy to say your true feelings to your self and write it down because your poerty will never judge you.

First of all, we have to get a handle or what poetry is (define it, so to speak) which means we have to find or come to a good definition of what poetry is. I personally would go with these definitions of poetry and what a poem is;

Poetry: (noun)

1.
the art of rhythmical composition (written or spoken) in order to express and/or highlight a subject or idea, feeling or emotion, as well as stir (move) an audience, through the power of its, words, feeling, imaginativeness, imagery, beauty, eloquence, style, and exquisite use of language and creative expression.
2.
literary work in metrical form; verse.

Poem: (noun)

1.
a composition in verse, especially one that is characterized by a highly developed artistic form and by the use of heightened language and rhythm to express an intensely imaginative interpretation of the subject.
2.
composition that, though not in verse, is characterized by great beauty of language or expression: a prose poem from the Scriptures; a symphonic poem.

As for as rules go, if what you've written can qualify under the stated definition of a poem/poety (rhythmical composition, artistic form, wonderful expression of language, creativity, and/or emotion), the only rule I have is that if fulfills its onw intent (that you be satisfied that you got what you wanted out of it).

True poetry is anything that is honest, anything that comes from the writers heart.
Now thats real poetry

In one way, poetry is pretending to write about random stuff when you are just subconsciously writing about one's self, and that includes forgotten past, intense memories, experiences, etc...

In other ways, it is a vague imagination that only you can understand totally.

I think there were rules a long time ago. but i think with modern day poetry it changed a little. take for example slam poetry. i think its all relative. meaning that you can just project your feelings out in a neat fashion. i think you are a writer. and in the past i have read your works. i dont agree with what people are telling you. your good in your own way. everyone is

Poetry comes from the heart. It just shows the emotion and passion inside you that just comes out in the form of words. Poetry can show beauty and compassion in something. And that's what I think the meaning of poetry is..

True poetry is something that is written from the heart. when you express your feelings and unwilling fears, and realize your emotion. The things you can't let go of, and the falling of loses that had rised above the rest. Poetry doesn't have to rhythme, a lot of it does, but it doesn't have to, there's no rule that makes poetry poetry but the rhyming. Poetry is writing that comes from the heart, a story of what's on your mind, and why you have doubt. A creative piece in a different form. Poetry is he communcation from your soul. Petry is the way your heart speaks to the outside!

True poetry reflects true love in every word. that makes the great love poetry..

the language of your heart and the feelings sometimes sad feelings sometime happy feelings. sometimes poetry is just about the human feelings.
true poetry can makes and inspire some non poet to become a poet like them... sometimes it happens in human nature. it

and in the end true poetry is what you feel and write and eactly the reader get it... overall i will say its the feelings.

I agree that a true poem can come in many forms, but it comes from deep within yourself. Expresses most powerful emotions inside through words.

True poetry is art. Art is expression in its purest form.

There are no set rules that guide an artist. Unfortunately, there is that little thing known as subjective taste. So even though whatever comes from your soul might be poetry, others may not appreciate it and may try to tell you that it either isn't well done or that it isn't poetry at all. This is something we must all get used to.

To me poetry is the way to show other people how you feel.
That are no rules of writting poems, you just write what ver you want to write. But you got to also watch out, because some of the thing you say might hurt people feelings. So be careful.
Well i think that it.

Well this is a great topic because if you see your work as true poetry it is because it obviously has a simmuntion of meaning to you and what you think it is.
However just like any writing art form there are to perceptions the readers and writing and they both are various to the the individual and thats why some people don't like some books and writing and others love them.

Poetry is a vessel where you express the changes, and paradigm shifts in your life..... your laughs and cries...... for me it releases me from willingness to blindly conform

Poetry is a vessel where you express the changes, and paradigm shifts in your life..... your laughs and cries...... for me it releases me from my willingness to blindly conform

An expression of yourself

Poetry is a crosswords puzzle you fill with your soul!!

I love the answer above mines but for me poetry is words put into a melody that streams from the heart, it your song.

I love the answer above mines but for me poetry is words put into a melody that streams from the heart, it your song.

Thank you for your answers. They are very creative and influential.

I like thomas and little nietzsche's answers.

Poetry is a secret world you enter; a safety box that hides your heart. Every reading, every writing must feel as if your soul is galloping into the wind.

Poetry is where the life lives.

^ true. There are a lot of people living their lives without much reflection. In poetry, the soil where we dig deep within is limitless.

We can sculpt our thoughts in so many so called artistic ways but very seldom soulfully.

But how can you tell if the piece someone has written was full of soul (so to speak) and not just a clutter or artistic thought from a creative mind? We can never truly know what another person is "feeling/experiencing" other than our own.

If you are asking how could we distinguish between gold and gold plated, I can tell you there are obvious measurements. If what you asking is how could we distinguish between true feeling and pretentious ones, I would say if we can not distinguish between those two we have no business with poetry. Poetry is the ability to depart from unemotional world. This ability could not be created through out a scientific calculation and measurements; they are understood through gut feelings and manifest themselves in inspiration. But if we lack that gut feelings, the connection to inspiration, we are lost like those chemist who only by studying the elements, were trying to alchemize the human spirit.

Absolutly true feelings and raw emotions

For myself poetry speaks to the word behind words. if we say "this" is a poem or "that" is a poem we are ceding,for the purpose of intellectual clarity,the very function of art which is to pitch us past the hardland of prose into the domain of wonder.i'll really stretch out and use a word from the apostle paul for a concluding remark on art.."the WORD kills,it is the SPIRIT which gives life.