What is poetry?...will you critique this? I posted earlier but it never showed up...?

[Sher]

Will you critique this paper I wrote? I posted this earlier this morning but for some reason it never posted to Yahoo, and I only received 2 answers. The topic was to be my opinion on "what is poetry, and who are poets?"

Poetry is more than pen to paper. Poetry is laying your soul bare, allowing yourself to be vulnerable. It soars beyond just being words daintily written on a sheet of notebook paper...it is art. It is therapy for many, acting as an emotional and creative outlet. Poetry is often one's method to their madness....using language to describe the raw feelings we experience from living in this overwhelming world. It is also an escape from that world. Poetry says the things that sometimes your outer voice can not. Poetry is everywhere, just look and listen....the sounds of the ballpark, the whistling winds over the mountaintop, the tears that fall from hurt and rejection. Poetry has no limits....it can be dramatic or mellow, it can cause you to weep or make you smile, it can rhyme or it can flow freely. It is the songs of the heart, the words of the spirit. Poetry is evocative and sometimes pretentious, using words to galvanize a vision.

They say that "poets are born, not made," but I tend to disagree. Everyone has a poet or an artist locked up tight in the depths of their inner being, but due to the society we live in, oftentimes they are never released. People fear difference, they are quick to judge and toss harsh words to those who not fit the mold. I have noticed that a lot of poets and artists hide their true selves behind a persona . On the outside, they seem as everyone else...but on the inside resides a deep, complex, passionate individual who sees the world as an adventure, looking past material objects and into the eyes of nature, philosophy and history. Sometimes all they need is for the world to be okay with that.

[Suzianne]

A gentleman in England told me that John Wain, a British poet, speaking on BBC radio in 1976, had perhaps the best definition of poetry when he said: "Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking."