Poetry is hard to attach a definition to when trying to use it as an umbrella term to cover what poetry means to everyone. Really, all I can really do is tell you what poetry means to me; each person's own definition is really the most important anyway.
I would describe poetry initially as a way of thinking. When asked to further describe what exactly it was that I meant by that, I would most likely unsatisfactorily shrug and mumble, "I don't know." Even though I do know, otherwise I probably would not have said it.
The reason I would mumble I don't know is maybe because I am lazy, maybe because I am shy, I just know that the way I think whenever poetry is involved is in webs, branching out and stemming and weaving across ideas and words that I am just not sure I know how to say, let alone if the person who asked me cares enough to hear the entire answer. I wouldn't remember the entire answer.
Poetry is a race, chasing the lines with lead.
Then are science and magic hurdles of poetry? No, I don't think I will stick with that metaphor, because the two work beside poetry, not against it. Outside of poetry, magic and science are explanations for people to cling to; they are providers of hope and consistent beliefs people depend on and shape their lives around. Poetry too, is a faith.
Out of curiosity, I have often asked many of my religious friends and avid church-goers about why they believe in their particular faith. Most shrugged and stumbled. Some quoted the words of others. A few got angry. I know why, though.
When asked why I believe in poetry, or what it means to be a poet I would probably shrug.
"I don't know."
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