Let me preface this by saying that I do like poetry. Frost, Yeats and especially Homer (does he count? I had a poetry student tell me he doesn't) are favorites of mine. But to me, writing a good poem is so much harder than writing a good story. Is this the case for anyone else? My poetry classes in college were all B's for me, pretty average. I guess I just didn't get or still dont get how to write a good poem. Kudos if you can write a good one, but hopefully I'm not the only one here who is poetically inept.
I find writing a decent poem to be an enormous challenge. But one thing that helps me is thinking of the poem like a story. Think about all the things that help tell a story: plot, setting, characters, ect. Poems are pretty much the same thing just in a more complicated format. No you're not alone.
I believe that poetry is the most difficult literary form to do well. Whereas short stoies and novels are predominantly constructive efforts, like building a house or a skyscraper, poetry consists largely of paring away everything but the core truths. Poetry is fractional distillation. You allow the volatile impurities boil off and escape in the breeze, and you leave behind the gritty residue of dirt and tars and irrelevence. You collect only the pure essence, not too earthy, not too airy, and display it in a crystal phial.
as well it should be!... poetry is the most refined of all the written arts and takes the most talent and skill with words to do well... of course that doesn't stop everyone and his/her cousin from spewing out what they call 'poems' but that doesn't make it 'poetry'... most of what i see in the 'poetry' sections on writer's sites and elsewhere on the net is what is considered 'doggerel' in the literary world and the writers of same 'poetasters,' to use an old-fashioned euphemism... i work with and mentor lots of aspiring poets, but sadly find that most don't want to work on perfecting their skills and would rather keep on turning out inferior stuff, than take the time to learn one of the most beautiful forms of art humankind has come up with... cog's description is a bit florid for my taste, but accurate, nonetheless...
