Some years back, I taught a course on Hebrew poetry. I made an honest attempt to help students get an understanding of what poetry is, apart from the necessary and difficult task of slogging through poetic texts in the original Hebrew. In the final exam, I included the following question. Since it may still be worthy of consideration I offer it here:
Last week I heard on Public Radio a feature on the units of the Chicago Housing Authority. They are noted for their violence. People, including children, are sometimes killed or maimed by stray bullets aimed at others. One woman interviewed made the following remark: "This is Saigon. This is Vietnam. There's no hope. There's no tomorrow."Is what she said poetry? If it isn't, how might we make it look more poetic? If it is, what makes it poetry, and how come it emerged spontaneously from the mouth of a woman with very little education?
Alan D. Corré