From the reader's view, a poem is more demanding than prose.
quote by Mark Strand

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
Related quotes
Poem Versus Prose
You do not like this poem
And I do not like your prose
Enough with your predicates
And your subjects
In this poem you will find
No commas and semicolons
This poem
Is armed with rhythms
Stanzas and shifts
This poem has no end
There are no colons
In this poem
Your prose is replete with nuances
This poem echoes
The plight of the oppressed
And dispossessed
In your prose I find parentheses
This poem speaks of life
Your prose can be edited
Cut this poem and it bleeds
You do not like this poem
And I do not like your prose
Prose has pauses and hyphens
Prose comes to a stop
This poem plugs images
Even in your head
Prose deals with fiction
And nonfiction
This poem can be heard
It can be felt
It speaks of hunger
Of hopelessness
Homelessness
It speaks of a bitter reality
You do not like this poem
poem by Buxton Shippy

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Nada Mas (only the poem)
Reader, your voice is the poem
you are the words; and
nothing more.
Reader, there is no poetry
unless you speak it.
Reader, there is no sound
you must find what it has to say.
Reader, seek the thought
rising from your soul.
Reader, look all about you, up and down
no one else has come this way.
Reader, there is no other poem
only you among the words of the word; and
nothing more.
poem by Smoky Hoss

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Thank You Reader Of This Poem
THANK YOU READER OF THIS POEM
Thank you reader of this poem
Among the billions of pages
And innumerable possibilities
For giving your time
You have given
A bit of your light
To these lines.
Thank you reader of this poem
For the kindness of your Attention.
poem by Shalom Freedman

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Dead To My Poem
DEAD TO MY POEM
Dead to my poem-
Dead to the poems of others-
Dead to poetry
In any way at all-
Into another way of feeling:
Dry- nervous- anxious- fearful.
Prose is my soul
Empty small literal flat prose.
Flat prose
Lines too flat to even need paraphrase
No poem no poetry
Prose.
poem by Shalom Freedman

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Poem
poem can never
give itself to the reader
if he is not found
poem is unmade
a reader makes a poem
with him in it there
poem by Samanyan Lakshminarayanan

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Modern Day Poet
I am the modern day poet you know
that must make words that easily flow.
For to just present words that ramble on
is to yield forth words that soon are gone.
They're gone from the listener and reader too,
who cannot reason or cannot view
how the words just seem to sit on a page
allowed to sit and yellow with age.
Words must be caressed and also thrive
to take on rhythms which come alive,
alive in the memory that through the ear
has taken it in and holds it dear.
And so in each poem I have my say.
And so in each poem my words do sway
back and forth like a front porch swing
giving my poem a magical ring.
I never allow dullness to come into play
for then my poem will be thrown away
into the piles of poems never read
because they're too hard to keep in the head.
So over and over it's become my style
to enchant the reader for a little while,
making them remember the lilting rhyme
that got into my head one word at a time.
poem by Edwina Reizer

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A Poem
i like to read your poem
and i like to say it is a poem
there is a difference
of course
between the two statements
i like to read
it is your poem but i may
after reading
that
saying that i am honest though
and can distinguish a poem
from one that is not a poem
that your poem is one that i only
like to read
and may
say that it is not your poem
but it is yours you are sure of that
but what i am saying is that
i am reading your poem
but i feel that it is not
a poem after all
i can say one when i read one
so i just say i like reading your poem
which could not really be a poem
not even prose
i just like it
but it is not anything about what
i feel i like it to be
a poem or prose
i am reading it, it isn't
like this one for instance
you know that
now.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
I Am Not Alone In My Poem- Am I?
I AM NOT ALONE IN MY POEM- AM I?
I am not alone in my poem- am I?
You You are with me in my Poem
You are my Poem.
And I? I am simply the mouth the voice the vehicle
Though which the sounds are written and saved.
You You are the Poem
And the All- Praise
And I am the one going away forever.
While You You Stay For Everyone Everywhere
You You the Reader and The Writer of All
And I I the simple sharer disappear.
poem by Shalom Freedman

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
18 Definitions Of A Short Poem
1) A short poem
Saves time,
2) A short poem
Saves time
For its reader, also.
3) A short poem is over
Before its read.
4) A short poem
Can be swiftly reread.
5) A short poem
Is a lightning flash.
6) A short poem
Is one metaphor only.
7) A short poem
Is less than nine words.
8) A short poem
Opens ones eyes
In the morning.
9) A short poem
May be a short prayer.
10) A short poem
May be a poem of a single word.
11) Poem.
12) A short poem
A small play on words.
13) A short poem
May be a single sentence.
14) A short poem is shorter
Than the definition of it.
15) It breaks up the icy sea within.
16) A chill down the spine.
17) There is no end
To making definitions of the short poem.
18) A short poem in Hebrew
Is shorter than than the same poem in English.
poem by Shalom Freedman

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
King of The Pen and Prose
King of the pen and prose.
He's an ink blotter stopper...
Rimming to the brim with rhyme.
And unconfined to find a line,
To entwine the mind!
King of the pen and prose.
Profound with nouns...
And vowel sounds.
Tossing in an adjective,
To vibe with a verb he throws.
He 'is' the king of the pen and prose!
He teases when he wishes...
And uses depth to expose a certain flair!
Just to keep a reader guessing...
What is being solicited,
If he becomes explicit...
With a tongue in cheek penned affair!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A Poem Is Just A Poem
a poem is just a poem and if it is just a poem
it must be just a poem just like another poem
a poem is nothing but just a poem otherwise
it cannot be my poem; it may speak about
anything, or something, or about everything,
but my poem is just a poem just like anybody's
poem, which is just but a poem, like any other
poem, for a poem to be a poem it must just be
a poem: it has nothing to do with my love, and death
my life, or bliss, but as i have told you, once, twice
thrice, eat some rice, and be that wise, a poem is
just a poem, just like your poem. Why do you insist
on asking, what is happening to me? I am not a
poem, for i am but just the composer of the poem,
need i tell you again, that a poem is just a poem?
just like any other poem, which is just a poem
it is just a voice in my head that i have heard
someone comes and speaks and i listen so
this poem is not actually my poem but the poem
of someone else's: theirs not mine, from a mind.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Not The Poem Of Yesterday
NOT THE POEM OF YESTERDAY
Not the poem of yesterday
But the poem of today-
Not what tomorrow will bring
But what I can write now.
So I live
Poem by poem
Day by day
Without even taking the time to forget.
The writer is not the best reader of his poems-
So I hope.
poem by Shalom Freedman

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Poets vision
My poem
My reader first
My world first.
My poem
My reader
My world.
You are all my world
You are all my reader
You are all my poem.
poem by Gajanan Mishra

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!

Lost poem
It was on this page, then gone
Like feathers blowing in the wind.
Where is the prose I wrote?
Not a letter is in sight.
I am looking with all my might.
Oh where is the prose I wrote?
Today I wrote a new poem,
Was it lost in cyberspace?
I hope not for I might not know it,
Even staring at me in the face.
Give me a break, my memories are at stake.
Oh where is the prose I wrote?
A thankyou for a comment
What is a poem without a reader?
What is a reader without a heart?
What is a heart without another heart to meet it,
greet it?
What are two hearts without what they share?
What is sharing without sharing everything?
What is everything without poets?
What is a poet without a reader...
How beautiful a circle is.
How still its centre.
poem by Michael Shepherd

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
In a manner of speaking, the poem is its own knower, neither poet nor reader knowing anything that the poem says apart from the words of the poem.
quote by Allen Tate

Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
This Poem
THIS POEM
This poem
This first poem
This last poem
This poem that invented Poetry
This one and only one poem
This fictional poem
This ideal poem
This perfect poem
This would – be holy poem
This unreal poem
This poem which is not a poem
This poem which is the essence of all poetry
This poem
And that poem
And my poem
And your poem
And all poems
Poem poem poem poem poem
This poem
Mine and yours
This one small poem of so so many
And not such a good poem at all.
poem by Shalom Freedman

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Oh Poem -Where Are You?
OH POEM-WHERE ARE YOU?
Oh poem- Where are you?
Come, release me from the burden of this day
The guilt of not doing anything
Help me pretend
That by writing you
I am truly doing something.
O poem here you are
This is you
Yet another self- justification
In a world which has so many more real pains.
Oh poem
Be kind a bit
Help someone
Anyone
Even just one reader
Feel that this dawn now
Can be the start
Of a real day.
poem by Shalom Freedman

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Oh Poem-Where Are You?
OH POEM-WHERE ARE YOU?
Oh poem- Where are you?
Come, release me from the burden of this day
The guilt of not doing anything
Help me pretend
That by writing you
I am truly doing something.
O poem here you are
This is you
Yet another self- justification
In a world which has so many more real pains.
Oh poem
Be kind a bit
Help someone
Anyone
Even just one reader
Feel that this dawn now
Can be the start
Of a real day.
poem by Shalom Freedman

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Poem.
I do not like the silly poem,
I do not like the angsty poem,
I do not like the ridiculous poem,
I do not like the damned poem,
I do not like the cheesy poem,
I do not like the random poem,
Or the epic poem,
Or the dandy poem,
Or the long poem,
Or the short poem,
Or the stupid poem,
Or the rude poem,
Or the useless poem,
Or the wordless poem,
Or the poem poem,
Or the poem poem's daughter,
Or the word, Poem,
I like the story.
poem by David Carter

Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!