Do you 'get' poetry?

That's okay. There's nothing wrong with having specific tastes in poetry. Some people only like rhymed, metered poetry while others only like free verse. Another haggis shortage averted!

It counts! I've taught poetry too. It's nice to know that some folks are doing it right.

>> I'm not much into the metered, rhyming stuff, but I love the sort of free-form narrative poetry you do. <<

*nod* I've known for a while now that I have several fans on each side, who only (or primarily) like either free-verse or form poetry. It's all fine.

>> Actually, thinking about it a minute more, I think it's more about the narrative than form or the absence thereof, since I also love the Poetic Edda, which has very strong forms, but is fundamentally a series of narratives. <<

I got to read parts of the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda in college. I like the Havamal too. I do tend to think of poetry as storytelling, and my poems are narrative more often than not. Sometimes I'll do one that's just a snapshot, like haiku, or wordplay. But most of them are basically stories.

>> Also a big fan of prose with poetic stylings, most notably Tolkien, where there's a strong rhythm and lyricism to the writing even though it's presented as prose. <<

*chuckle* Yeah, Tolkien drew a lot of his style from classic poetry and poetically flavored prose ... which is where he got his character names from, too.

Those are poems. They count. e.e. cummings is a favorite of mine, and I like haiku too.

Most of my poetry is intended to be understandable. Obscure bits are more often eastereggs than fundamental aspects of the poem. There's some variation, though -- my nature poems tend to be a lot more accessible for general audiences, whereas my science fiction poems tend to assume that the reader is familiar with sciences.

I'm glad I inspired a whole post! I appreciate the link.