"Poetry"-this is such a wide term, like the category "novel," or "non-fiction," or "song." There are poems that are a smattering of lines and those that fill an entire book. Some follow strict rhyme, and others stick to free verse. Complete plays are written in poetic verse, and operas, too. Even the different types of poems, themselves, are poetic when listed: ode, epic, tanka, pantoum, villanelle, jintishi, sonnet, lyric and prose.
             And, one should not forget all the wonderful terminology that describe the way words are said: accent, alliteration and assonance; consonance, dissonance; foot and eye rhythm; enjambment; 1/2 rhyme, rhyme scheme, and sprung rhythm; onomatopoeia, anacrusis and Caesura, and, of course, aposiopesis, anadiplosis and stichomythia. Also, poetry includes periods, styles, and movements...
             Black Mountain, Cowboy, Folk, Limerick, Lyric,
             Libel, Concrete, Pastoral, Romanticism and Imagism. Erasure, Movement
             Minnesinger, Performance and Epitaph.
             Meters and tetrasyllables-long, long, short; long, short, long
             short. short. short, and long, long, long.
             Dimeter, Trimeter, Tetrameter, Pentameter, Hexameter, Heptameter, Octameter, and Poulter's measure.
             What poems do I like best? It depends, if I am awake or at rest, or quiet or loud, or ashamed or proud, or happy or sad, or just plain mad. If I am feeling young, bring on Dr. Seuss, Sam I am. Or I enjoy being on the team with Shel Silverstein. "There is a place where the sidewalk ends And before the street begins,/ And there the grass grows soft and white,/ And there the sun burns crimson bright,/ And there the moon-bird rests from his flight/ To cool in the peppermint wind."
             Sitting outdoors on a chair, as the wind blows through my hair, I think of "Living Simply": I taught myself to live simply and wisely,/ to look at the sky and pray to God,/ and to wander long before evening/to ...