Ceci n’est pas un poème

Today is International Poetry Day. Here is my contribution. I have taken Kurt Vonnegut’s words of wisdom to heart:

“Practising an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.”

Ceci n’est pas un poème

There’s an old joke in this here world
That if you take a normal sentence
And then split up
The words
Onto several lines
Like this
Then you have a poem.

Actually it’s not so much a joke
As a knowing comment
Or aperçu.

But is it true?
And how do you do it?

One
Word
A
Line
Is
Too
Few.

And if you put most of the words on one line and then the last one on another it just looks
Weird.

I say
If it looks like a poem
And sounds like a poem
And the person who wrote it calls it a poem
Then a poem it is.

Even if it doesn’t rhyme.

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