To me, anything that isn’t a three-line haiku is long-form poetry! In the 18th and 19th century, the narrative poem was popular – effectively a short story in verse. I was introduced to many of these as a child and I still love “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes and “The Song of Hiawatha” by H W Longfellow. Poetry can even be the size of a novella, such as Louise Reid’s “The Poet”. More usually, especially in these days of screen browsing, a poem of 12-40 lines is expected (most poetry competitions have a limit of forty lines). My favorite Facebook poet is Brian Bilston – who always provides something amusing as well as clever in his posts. Some poetry rhymes, some of it doesn’t. Some of it is light-hearted, some is deeply philosophical. Poetry is very much a matter of taste, and to me it is a matter of mood, whether writing it or reading it.
