What is your definition of poetry?

[cici4_90]

and examples of this is poems

[Gavin R]

Here's one of the best poems ever written. It was written by William Blake:
"To see a world in a grain of sand
And a Heaven in a wildflower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."

Poetry is a very condensed way of speaking about human experience, and it naturally gravitates towards emotion, as emotional experiences are our most intense ones. Poetry also makes use of various techniques such as rhythm. Rhythms can be free and subtle, like the way Walt Whitman uses them, or pounding and direct, like the song "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones. Rhyme is another technique that can be clever and effective, but it can be contrived and this weakens a poem.
Poetry has a very long history. The hymns of the Rg Veda were written 3500 years ago but some of them are still very stirring. "The Odyssey" is completely fantastic and reads aloud very well. "Beowulf" is a great horror story. The Doors had some very sexy songs, such as "Twentieth Century Fox".

[joanne_hall_2000]

Poetry is an expression of how we feel or what we have been thru in our lives. Sometimes just things we want to say!

[Marco M]

This is a dictionary definition thet's pretty good: "Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response."

My common-sense definiting is "Writing that sounds better, and means more than it's literal words." A poem uses images, metaphors and other devices to suggest more than it's words literally say. For instance, here's a one-stanza poem:

This is the hour of lead
Remembered, if misunderstood,
As freezing people recollect the snow
First the chill, then the stupor,
Then the letting go

It's a poem because it means more than the words say. On one level, it's about freezing to death, but on another level (more meaningful to most of us), it suggests how a relationship ends gradually -- how you're "frozen out."

Here's another one with existential significance by e.e.cummings:

Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

[Alobar]

Expression through words, but beyond words. Beauty.