tofu...

Anonymous:

As a "non-poetry person," what makes a poem a poem? I got inspired to write a brief poem (having not done that since 9th grade, and it was for class), but it just reads like rambling with a little bit of formatting. Is that "enough?"

kvothes:

yeah, this is a good question, especially since poetry has so many many forms. sometimes it has line breaks, sometimes it’s like prose, sometimes there’s a lot of metaphors and sometimes none, sometimes full sentences and sometimes not, to say nothing of rhyme and meter and repetition and forms… try to name any “rule” of poetry and i will find you a poem that gleefully and masterfully breaks it.

in my mind, the determining factor is intention. i don’t necessarily mean “it’s a poem because i say it’s a poem.” that’s too easy. it’s more about having a reason for the things you do. do you have a reason for using/not using line breaks, full sentences, rhymes? to my mind, a poem is carefully considered in its elements.

so someone can take any old bit of text and say “this is a poem now.” but to me, the proof is in what comes next. why is it a poem? what makes it compelling? what is it doing with language that falls outside of usual usage? what other poems is it like or unalike?

if you sat down to write a poem, then you wrote a poem. “enough” doesn’t really come into it. there’s no quota. intentionality goes a long way, at least in my mind <3