What is poetry?

I do not know. I do know that I cannot answer the question, What is art?, either.

There are answers that enable us to understand how poetry is constructed.

This site, Thinking Poetry, seems to be a good one for information. I know that the young sometimes decry history, or the study of ancient art, or literature, yet I know we learn much from examining that which we love.

Study the masters and figure out how they created what they did. For example, visit the Margaret Reid Traditional Poetry site for past winners. That will help you find a bar for which you can aim!
We've been studying poetry since the beginning of time:

Fowler, W.C. (1855). The English Language in its Elements and Forms. Harper & Brothers.
Morgan, J. (1814). Elements of English grammar. Goodale & Burton.

However, keep writing, look for the Margaret Reid Poetry Contest for Traditional Verse

They are accepting traditional verse poetry. They mean a poetry form that has been around for 50 years or more. They want poems that follow some kind of formal or informal pattern.
This pattern might involve rhyme, meter, length of line, repetition, or some other pattern, strict or loose.

Feet, meter, forms,
rhythm and rhyme
patterns popular
from the beginning of time.

Forms that qualify include free verse
T.S. Eliot Ezra Pound Walt Whitman Stephen Spender)

"sprung" verse: Gerard Manley Hopkins
narrative verse: Alfred Noyes
satirical verse: e.e. cummings: "my sweet old etcetera" Dorothy Parker
nonsense verse: Edward Lear
lyric verse: Tennyson
romantic verse: Wordsworth
religious verse: James Russell Lowell
children's verse: A.A. Milne
comic verse and parodies: W.S. Gilbert A.P. Herbert
also:
sonnets, haiku, ghazals, ballads, odes, villanelles, sestinas, songs, hymns

Check out this Glossary of Poetic Terms describes many forms. And traditional and exotic forms of poetry found on the winning writer's resource pages.

Odes: Praise poetry!

• Wikipedia definition
• Poets.org definition
• Instructions for writing your own ode
• Odes written by Pablo Neruda

Clerihew

Clerihews are funny poems you write about specific people (your parents, your boss, your favorite movie star, your best friend, your pet, or anyone else you can think of). Clerihews have just a few simple rules:

• They are four lines long.
• The first and second as well as the third and fourth lines rhyme with each other.
• The first line names a person, and the second line ends with something that rhymes with the name of the person.
• A clerihew should be humerous.

This form of poetry is named after its inventor Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) whose first collection of verse in Biography For Beginners (1905):


Sir Humphrey Davy
Abominated gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

--Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Poetry Month - sources of information

In this, poetry month, I have found several places to find prompts, and/or sources of inspiration, including poetry styles, ideas, photos.

A poem of regret is suggested from Blog Writer's Digest. They offer poetry groups, and sell books, but they also talk about various poetry forms. I found this a good source of a prompt, in that playing with language, rhyme and syllables is good for the brain cells. If you are stuck, go to an on-line rhyming dictionary, there are lots of free ones about!

ReadWritePoem is one constant source in inspiration. Reading other's poetry is another source:
ReadWritePoem Participants. Reading other's poetry always gives me a source. Whether they are 'good' or 'bad', you can learn from what works for you. Some forms work better than others for us, but it is really good to stretch your skills, and add to your writing practice. The Blog Writer's Digest offers Poet's Market updates, too.
A handy piece for some. I just write for fun!

NaPoWriMo: the noises around me is one of the daily prompts (this from April 23). These prompts, that evoke sensory images and immediate sources, work best for me. I like to write from a place of knowledge and immediate inspiration. We write best when we write what we know.

Some are establishing their own groups: Sam Proof, Poetry Dances, as well as the more popular groups mentioned above. Find a kindred spirit and give each other feedback. You need not live in the same city or even the same country! It is a joyful way to play with language.


External links:

• Abstract (or Sound) Poetry
  
• Alphabet Poetry
• Concrete Poems
• Elegy
  
• Epitaphs
  
• Fibonacci Poetry
• Found Poetry
• Hay(na)ku
  
• Kyrielle
  
• Limericks
  
• List Poems
• Occasional Poems
• Odes
  
• Pantoum
  
• Parody Poems
• Rondeau
  
• The Roundabout
• Sestina
  
• Shadorma
  
• Triolet

Cinquain Quintain Quintet

The cinquain, also known as a quintain or quintet, is a poem or stanza composed of five lines. Cinquains can be found in many European languages; originating from medieval French poetry. (Often, my students would align the poems by centering them. They look interesting.)

The most common cinquains in English follow a rhyme scheme of ababb, abaab or abccb. For some 16th and 17th-century poets check out: Sir Philip Sidney, George Herbert, Edmund Waller, and John Donne (1572 - 1631). It helps to read, or listen to, the best!

Framework
Line 1 - one word for the topic - noun
Line 2 - 2 words to describes your topic -adjective
(from Latin: ad - 'toward', + jacere - 'throw')
Line 3 - 3 words that describes the actions relating to your topic -adverb
(place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree)
Line 4 - 4 words that describes the feelings relating to your topic - affect
Line 5 - one word that is another noun for your topic - synonym

I used this poetic strategy to teach my gr. 8 writers about grammatical terms. It works well!

Syllables

Line 1 - two syllables
Line 2 - four syllables
Line 3 - six syllables
Line 4 - eight syllables
Line 5 - two syllables

Read as many poems as you can. It helps set the tone.

The Handbook of Poetic Forms suggests:

• Refrain from being cloyingly sweet
• build toward a climax
• put a surprise into your last two lines
• be concerned with thoughts and images
• rather than parts of speech.