No. Don’t let them dilute language like that. Poetry isn’t something that ‘invokes emotion’; any prose can do that. Poetry is a matter of meter- it has to be written in a manner that is distinct from normal writing. That doesn’t mean that all poetry is any good, but if it has a structure and if it follows that structure, then it can be called poetry.
I am well aware. I teach poetry. Even Free Verse, properly understood, should be a poetry form in which you set your own meter, structure and rhythm. It is often taught extremely poorly, leading to what you’re talking about, but at root it is supposed to be a poetic model where you get to determine the constraints, in contrast to say a sonnet, which has its own rules. So ‘whatever you want’ but not in the way most mean.
No. Don’t let them dilute language like that. Poetry isn’t something that ‘invokes emotion’; any prose can do that. Poetry is a matter of meter- it has to be written in a manner that is distinct from normal writing. That doesn’t mean that all poetry is any good, but if it has a structure and if it follows that structure, then it can be called poetry.
Except there's a kind of poetry called "free verse" poetry that is taught in schools, where the style is pretty much "whatever you want"
I am well aware. I teach poetry. Even Free Verse, properly understood, should be a poetry form in which you set your own meter, structure and rhythm. It is often taught extremely poorly, leading to what you’re talking about, but at root it is supposed to be a poetic model where you get to determine the constraints, in contrast to say a sonnet, which has its own rules. So ‘whatever you want’ but not in the way most mean.
Good ol' modern art. Lowering the bar to the point everything becomes meaningless.