What even is a poem?

Is it an ode to all you see?

Is it an old story told, somehow new?

Is it a place to write a piece

Were the rules are far and few?

What is it I should write?

I don’t know where to start – should I write

A poem into a story, or a story into a poem?

I’m no poetry expert, but I’ve written a few

When I look at poetry, you see,

I find a way to say what’s true, to put the words at peace

But what if that is not enough, do I need to do something new?

What makes a poem ‘good’? Are there rules I never knew?

Is a poem is good, what makes it right?

What if my poem is bad, but it has a piece

that is good? Who gets the qualification to judge a poem?

Who gives my poem a grade? An A, a B, a C?

Here I ask all these questions, but the answers are few.

If a poem can be bad, then I’m sure I’ve written a few.

Is uniqueness good? What makes my poetry new?

For a poem to be good, do other people have to see

The meaning? I do not write books, why is it poetry I write?

Tell me, are songs poetry? Is a rap a poem?

Tell me, who gets to eat the ‘poetry pie’? Do I get a piece?

I could write a poem on war, or a poem on peace.

I could write a poem on many topics, or maybe one on few.

But tell me, do I have to write in form, like this poem?

Can I invent my own form? Can I do something new?

Or would that make my poetry not poetry, and I’d instead write

A whole new thing. It’s pretty confusing, see?

I want to write my own stuff, be the master of my sea.

I fight against the chains of form, but really I want peace.

Maybe to question is wrong, but to me I think it’s right.

But perhaps forms are the way to write poetry, and I do know a few

Perhaps I should keep doing what I’m doing, stick to what I know and avoid the new

Tell me, then, why should I write a poem?

I want to see when I read a poem

I don’t want words, I want a piece. Show me something I never knew.

No matter how it is your write, your poem is yours – and you, are few.