06-06-2026, 02:58 PM
ok, I'll bite - a poem is disruptive. This is for me the fundamental qualitative difference between "poetry" and "other types of writing that probably aren't exactly poetry."
an article seeks to inform
an op-ed seeks to persuade
an essay seeks to analyze
a story seeks to engage
but a poem, above all else, seeks to challenge the reader's assumptions about the relationship between signifier and signified. all good poems do this, and anything that doesn't do this is likely to not be a poem.
an article seeks to inform
an op-ed seeks to persuade
an essay seeks to analyze
a story seeks to engage
but a poem, above all else, seeks to challenge the reader's assumptions about the relationship between signifier and signified. all good poems do this, and anything that doesn't do this is likely to not be a poem.

