What Makes Good Poetry?

What makes good poetry? Because this question opens the virtual door to ambiguity, there really is no clear-cut answer, not in the strict sense of the definition. And because there is such an enormous array of poetry out there, not all of it is reducible to a common blueprint.

There are, though, what have been called hard edges when it comes to birthing a poem. Poems need them to survive and there is a common list of what this constitutes. In the interest of brevity, I will list them accordingly, without definition, their meanings not difficult to deduce.

meter
grammar & syntax
vocabulary
fearlessness
wit
insouciance

When you have mastered the above the last hard edge is icing on the cake. Keep an indifference to the reactions of readers to your work. Never, never tailor your poem to suit the tastes of others. Your poem is answerable only to yourself, God, and your internalized aesthetic criteria.

paulygrl (c)