What makes a good poem?
In your honest opinion
Is it the length
The content or the form
Does language and style matter much?
How about the words and how they flow
Would you rather free verse
Shakespearean sonnets or
Humor with puns and limericks
Haikus, Tanka, and micro poetry
Seem to be taking over these days
Does it matter who wrote the poem
Perhaps good poems are only from a certain stock
(Bukowski’, Poe, and such)
Would you mind if you didn’t get it
Many of the best poems often seeming elusive
Almost out of the mind’s grasp
With hidden meanings and complex words (language)
Do you care for a particular topic
Or does any subject at all do
Does nature have more to offer
Than poems on love and life
Tell me if you can
How deeply are you moved when you read said poem
Does it affect you at all
Leaving a message so impactful
You are dumbfounded
Wishing you could write such
Wondering how they wrote such
The poem becoming a treasured part of you
What makes a good poem?
In your humble opinion
And do tell me
Have you ever read one?
* Have a lovely weekend dear friends. Stay safe and be good to others, and yourself*
Boomie Bol 
A good poem is when the player manages to capture the story as his own experience. Have a good day
Amen! So true, thanks so much. You too
Have I ever read one, yes indeed! Yours. I love a poem I can connect to, a poem you can almost see come to life in your mind, a poem written from the heart, a poem that’s not afraid to be vulnerable. So many poems. 🙂
Oh you are too kind Lily! Thanks
When I was young I couldn’t get enough Elizabeth Barret Browning. I loved a lot of the classic poets.
Today in my rushed world I enjoy the short pieces. They provide me with a lot meaning/ feeling for a minimal amount of time invested.
Poetry seemed a forgotten form of expression, until I found that it is alive and well in the Blogosphere.
Long Live Poets and their Poems!
And Boomie, I have enjoyed many of yours. Keep writing!
Oh thank you so much. I love Edgar Allen Poe’s Annabel Lee… Just dies something to me every time
a true poem or in another say, a good poem which is written from heart… and when it reaches someone’s heart… Thank you, have a nice weekend, beautiful poet, dear Boomie, love, nia
Thank you Ms. Nia. You too!
There’re many ingredients that can make a poem outstanding – all ingredients need don’t be there every time – also the timing means a lot how the poem affects on one – I have read many of my long ‘haha’ lives – and someone I’ll never forget too – I think you’re really good at timing… 🙂
Thanks so much. I agree timing is quite important amongst many other factors
I was introduced to poetry by a no nonsense Grammar teacher in 1999 and i fell in love in spite of her. I love connecting poetry…But was disgusted when at the university we were taught forms and types of poetry…and there were this pedantic efforts to produce poetry to conform to certain mold, by our tutors, which i believe kills the connection. In all, i want to write poetry according to the rhythm of my heart: a beautiful thing i think you’ve got!
Thank you! Yea sometimes in the name of form and style it can become almost pretentious, elusive and damn right complex hiding behind big words and no emotion… I guess we can all agree it should come from the heart.
Thanks so much
You are a true poet Boomie, it is what comes from the heart that makes real poetry. Form is all well and good but to always stick to form would be like a production line of toasters falling into neat little boxes. Some I have read where many a paragraph proclaiming to be poetry where
( I know I am not the best judge) I wonder if someone picked up a magazine and just picked words off pages that had no reason or sense and proclaimed ‘poetry’.
Yea sometimes I read some poems and its like a combination of big words and thoughts I can’t grasp but if the writer understands it I guess it’s ok except the reader should be able to as well but hey what do I know lol
my thoughts exactly..I think LOL Have a beautiful weekend
Yes, Len. It is what come out of the heart that makes good poetry. And you are one great poet yourself, Boomie. 🙂
Oh you flatter me, thanks. Yes I think from the heart is a great way to start writing a good one. Sometimes I read done poems and I have no idea what they are talking about but they feel so beautiful…
Hey Boomie! I would say a good poem is written from the solar plexus, touches the reader there (sometimes punching or kicking, but not always–sometimes it is a caress), and resonates there–somewhere near the heart, the vital core of the self. Just my opinion though, and yours does that for me…
Great opinion and rightly true 🙂
I am with Susan on this one
Thanks Bruce
ooo I agree here too – just commented in similar context… though Susan says it much more eloquently ~ thank you Susan!! ~:) R
🙂
Many factors make a good poem, the first that it be universal. The audience needs something to relate to. Everything after that is artistic (lyric, form, imagery, etc.) which helps convey the intent.
Very well said George. Thanks so much
I agree with everyone.. I love the classics, I love the new rhythmic poems that are out in our city recently (almost sound like rap) but most of all, anything that speaks from the heart and soul.. is honest and true. That’s my favorite poem to read, because it resonates with my own experiences. xx
You are so right, from the heart. Thanks so much
A good poem is often bound to the time and circumstance the reader happened to have read it.
So true. I think timing is very important
A part of the poet, is what makes a goood poem. When he pours his soul into his works, he creates nothing less than masterpieces.
🙂
I like what you say here, a part of the poet. Thanks so much Achana 🙂
That is lovely! Well done! 🙂
Thank you 🙂
Looking bacck over the comments I find Charles’ experience was akin to mine. Dear old cranky Miss… would come to our poetry class and slam down her case on the desk, pull out her book, and say, ‘I hate poetry! And in spite of her I love poetry. That love comes from the heart doesn’t it. Nothing can quench it!
I agree! I wonder why the teachers and professors did that. Shame on them…many a people have missed out on loving subjects because of some of them and their attitudes. Glad you didn’t fall for her cranky ways lol.
I do like introspective stuff like this, slightly tongue in cheek but very real..
Thank you vey much
It’s all about…. how it make one FEEL ~ in my humble opinion ~
If you feel … it is a poem worthy of praise …
much Love dearest boomie x ps: yours always do this!!
Oh my dear Robyn, i agree i read some poems and i just can’t help myself…it’s like waves of water washing over me.
Thanks for the kind words…hope you are doing well, and settling down after the storm. Sending warm hugs and love
I good poem isn’t confined by rules (unless it chooses to be), and it sticks to your lungs like smoky incense; its scent is carried from page to heart to human to human.
Oh Luke, you comment here is poetry in itself…sticks to the lungs like smoky incense…scent carried from page to heart…i might steal some of these words soon lol.
A good poem contains words, that is a prerequisite. I like poems that make me think. Either about a certain aspect or a poem that I can go back to and always garner new things from. That is all I require. I am a simple man, I also like poems on different coloured paper.
Hehee…i know what i will tell Santa to get you then…a beautifully wrtten poem on coloured paper lol. Thanks Ste J, always a pleassure to “see” you here
Glad to be back after a bit of an absence (okay two days isn’t much but it’s long enough), I have missed here.
🙂
A good poem is when the words paint a picture, while rolling off your tongue melodiously, just like yours Boomie 😉
Oh i like words that paint pictures as well. You are mighty kind :), thanks always! God bless
i think a good poem provides the poet with a sense of relief, a feeling of satisfaction, a release …. like setting a bird free from a cage, let it fly where it may ….:) Jimi
Love this..
Thanks my friend
Passion, thoughtfulness, slyness, a love of the language. Slyness because the poem needs to come in under the radar when defences are down.
As for the rest, it depends.