What is "good poetry"?

I don't know. I just write poetry because it is my passion and flows from the center of my being.

I think poetry is meant to make the writer, and reader, feel something.

Yes, often we write because we must. When you write, though (or maybe when you read), are you conscious of noticing techniques/word usages/whatever that make the feelings clearer or more intense or, again, whatever it is that works for you?

I have no idea what good poetry is but by Heaven I know what bad poetry is

I don't have criteria, I just know it when I read it. I enjoy some poetry that I know probably doesn't meet teaching standards, and I don't enjoy some that others praise. Obtuse annoys me, as does weird line breaks in prose to make it look like poetry.

I think all writers write because we have to. What I don't understand are those who post/publish because they think they have to.

I don't know.

I enjoy some.

Some, I just don't get.

It's an interesting question, though.

Oh no! Now your making me have to think!

10 for you!

Here's another comment for you, to help you reach your goal!

Thanks for sharing this with us.

And making me have to think!

Good poetry moves me, makes me think and mostly excites me in the same way as an object of beauty.
Good poetry communicates eloquently and often with fewer words than prose.
Good poetry is what I like.
Bad poetry is like a person singing out of tune
Bad poetry makes me yawn.
Bad poetry sounds like the sqeaking scream on a chalkboad
Bad poetry is what I don't like
It's a matter of personal perception
It is anything but objective.

oops...I meant squeaking.
Criteria for better poetry does exist
form, meter, fresh use of language, avoidance of cliche, alliteration, rhyme
metaphor, simile...look it up on Google...I'm sure there are more examples.

The purpose of poetry is the same purpose as for art....creative expression and communication. I think of poetry as being one of the arts.

Oops. I thought there must be a great discussion when I saw the numbers. What's up with Dorothy?

I agree with most here. Good or bad is a judgment within the reader alone. I am not particularly fond of snobbery.

It must be from inside and there is no such demarkation... it is all relative.

street artist

My thoughts on poetry bounce around as I explore writers from different times and cultures. I like poetry that asks the reader to consider something, and by the end of the poem you've been taken somewhere and glimpsed the idea to be considered.

I also like being left to draw my own conclusions, things are only alluded to by the author.

I'm also growing excited about forms which ask the writer, while constrained by the format, how best to share the idea, and then stage it for the audience to watch. I'm thinking in theater terms here, as that's how I read a poem. As though I'm watching a live performance. Or a still life. I'd like to play with the sonnet.
This is great Libramoon, thanks. I hope you get additional comments. It'll be another opportunity to read Gatherer's ideas furthered.

To me poetry is subjective and meant to be expressive. So, as long as the poem has proper grammar and follows the rules of form it's a good poem. Whether or not I like the poem is my personal opinion.

I have been thinking a lot about this thread. Occasionally, I read an unkind comment on work that you know, comes from the heart and perhaps from a writer who is not as skilled. That always saddens me and I get emails from them saying that they want to get out of Gather because of unkind comments. I am not a very good poet and have received some of those comments myself. I enjoy the cinquain form of poetry and find that it suits me well as it is a brief form and I like the structure of it. I will continue to write and I am sure that I will continue to get some "good post" comments, there will be some critical comments or none at all and there will also be some kind words.

To me, poetry is about the sounds as well as the meaning where prose is concerned with meaning and format. One of the many beauties of poetry is its diversity. Some is rhymed and metered. Some is constrained to a tight format. Some is quite literal while much of poetry is symbolic. Some is smooth as silk and some is intentionally like riding over a bumpy road. I guess for it to be "good" poetry, it should connect with the reader; that's not to say with what percentage of the readers.

I was able to get out in to the world a bit yesterday and walked out to Barnes and Noble (the only book retailer in walking distance). Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows' translation of Rilke's Book of Hours came home with me. My original copy, badly in need of replacement is back home on my shelf. This is lovely:

All who seek you
test you.
And those who find you
bind you to image and gesture

I would rather sense you
as the earth senses you
In my ripening
ripens
what you are

I need from you no tricks
to prove you exist.
Time, I know,
is other than you.

No miracles, please
just let your laws
become clearer
from generation to generation.

Very nice to be with an old friend.

clarification... two books, two homes a continent apart.

Leaving a comment so I can find my way back again.

invitation to the fourth annual Brigid cyber poetry slam

Good poetry is able to touch the sensitive strings inside a human's soul. Good poetry inspires and resonates... good poetry has wings. ;-)


Blessings and best wishes - S.

Good poetry speaks directly to the reader, touches some hidden chord within them. I have no real criteria when it comes to poetry. Either I like it or I don't, but either way it is a gift freely given. Someone once said that we can live days without food or water but not one without poetry. I believe the purpose of poetry is to feed the soul of the reader as well as the poet. Poetry, like Music, helps the artist express some moment on their life path, helps heal the wounds of body, mind and soul, and creates a window through which others may see and experience along with the poet.

wishing you laughter