What is poetry

[matsunosuperfan]

r

I am curious as to what others think:  What is poetry?  In this age it would seem that any block of words put together in any form can be called poetry.  Free verse, traditional verse, digital poetry, concrete poetry, visual poetry, prose poetry -- the list goes on.  The issue I have is that if anything and everything is poetry, doesn't the term 'poetry' lose all meaning?  

Don't get me wrong:  I write poetry of different types.  But perhaps "poetry" is dead, and now we are simply wordsmiths. So, how would you define poetry?

Well Bruce, I think it's ultimately a question which is as easy to answer as it is useful to ask, which is to say: not very. 

Poetry is kind of like pornography: impressively hard to define, but mostly, you know it when you see it.