Passionate or gutless?

[cidermaid]

Billy mentioned the perfect poem....I suppose (if ever such a thing were to exist - I'm a sceptic on this) that again, not only is it deeply personal but each of us would have two perfect poems....one that is the best poem that would ever flow from our own pen - the piece we hold up as the pinnacle of our creative achievments. The other is the poem from the pen of another, that gives us most pleasure to read. As T/ angel said we're all different and as was seen on the fav peom thread, it is amazing how many different styles and forms come forward as having exceptional merit. (One man's elixir is another man's poison).
So far I think Billy summed up my original enquiry best for me Q: passion is a waste of time if your output is gibberish even if it sticks to a form in all the right places. great form is shite if you shoe horn the passion in.
From this i return to the second part of my original question (which felt like one of those, how long is a piece of string ones)...what should we use as a benchmark to asses the cut off point from one to another?
I sort of guess that i've answered my own question by being here ( on a poetry forum).....in that the critique of a good cross section of your intended audience is probably the best benchmark.
For me this then begs another question. Is it possible to have a perfect poem? (Is this the holy grail of the poetry world?)