What is Poetry? #NationalPoetryMonth

Poetry of Mother Nature

There are more than ten thousand definitions of poetry, as each poetry lover and poet defines it differently. This time, in honor of NationalPoetryMonth, I have asked my blogger cum poet friends to define this art, which is deeper than thoughts…“thoughts that breathe, words that burn,” said Thomas Gray.

Poetry is hollow without emotions
Words just stare sans sheen
Soulful poetry tugs at heart
Wrapping words in sandpaper
Draping each emotion with electric élan
© Balroop Singh.

Poetry is a song
Also a painting serene or wild
Poetry is our dreams expressed
Also the stars and the moon
Poetry speaks my inner truth.
© Miriam Ivarson

Poetry is:
Your soul emptying itself
Touching lives with one breath
Your voice overcoming darkness
Raw, vulnerable and free
© Marie Kléber

Poetry is but a song, spoken in words
and played to melodies
heard only in the hearts of lovers,
forbidden and otherwise.
© Nonnie Jules

“Poetry is the one way to really express your inner thoughts and feeling and helps you to relate and understand others. It is the out-pouring of the soul.”
© Elizabeth Beetham

Poetry is my inseparable lover
At night I snuggle and slumber with her
A velvety couch of imagery is our dream
Of mystic lands beings and forms unseen
In the morning my eyes open to her beauty
In her silky tresses I thread myself furtively
Her kisses are words of ecstasy
Burning my skin as evanescent paper arduously
As she carves with the pen of immortality
She turns to ashes my poet’s frisk and folly
Turning my heart to lyrics of past life and mystery
Together we plough in the pasture of eternity

© Anita Bacha

The Magnitude of Poetry:
“Poetry is dead”
So some writers say
But listen closely please
To what I’m about to say
Poetry is ever written, everlasting
It will be around long after the doubters
Poetry is the view from the highest mountain
That makes us dizzy from the height
It’s the beating of our hearts
And the tapping of our feet
While we read the rhythm of the words
It’s the way it makes us feel
When it takes us to a grave
The taste in our mouths
When it describes a kiss
The smell of a wood stove
That heats a mountain cabin
And the warmth it makes us feel
It’s that childlike memory
Of your favorite nursery rhyme
And the dreams we had of Santa Claus
When it was nearing Christmas time
It’s the smile on our faces
When we find a perfect rhyme
A glimpse of Heaven as we read
About Saint Peter’s gate
It’s the lyrics in a song
That we never can forget
Music in the words
That puts a song in our hearts
It’s a painting in our minds
That we see because of words
The magnitude of poetry
Is deep within our hearts
Even deeper in our souls
It makes us laugh
Makes us cry
Makes us smile
If only for awhile
And so I say to you
“Poetry is dead?”
Not as long as I can read
Nor as long as I can write
As long as there is ink in my pen
And blood flows through my veins
My poetry will never die
Even after I am gone
My poetry lives on
And that
Is the magnitude of poetry
© The Tennessee Poet

I am thankful to all the poets who have defined poetry in such beautiful words.

You can share your own definition with us. I am eager to hear your thoughts about poetry.

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Balroop Singh.