Poetry is the world's oldest universal form of literature. Every nation and every culture has some form of poetry. Poems are usually the first stepping stone in songs and even fiction. In fact, before there was ink and papyrus to write the first books of the Bible, Passages where made into poems that fathers sang regularly to their sons, word for word, for dozens of generations. There are those who have dared to create strict guidelines to determine what is poetry and what is not. Such individuals would denigrate the beautiful art of poets like William Carlos Williams, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and myself. As long as a work has meaning and comes from the heart, the mind, or even the stomach, it is poetry. Even if it is four lines with blunt language or 10 pages with flowery language, it is poetry--something to appreciate, to share, and to write.