Good Question - What Is a Poem, Anyway

So, what is a poem, anyway? Should it have a fixed number of lines? Should it rhyme all the time? Should it be passionately romantic? ...As my lissome Latina lover let the wild wind dance through her fragrant hair igniting my eager lips... Should it be EdGyyyyyyy chIC O-SO A T Garde? V N A maybethereshouldbenoformofpunctuationofanykindatanytimeperiod And what abouty all those new forms? The haiku, the senryu, the question-ku the Pantoum, the Rondeau, the Cinqku, the Cinquain, the Clerihu, not to mention that old Suessian special, the Horton-Hears-a-Who And then there's always the matter of meter ... or is it metre? Should a poem always have to feel like riding a horse? Once upon a midnight dreary While I pondered, weak and weary... I thought that I would never see A thing as lovely as a tree... Well, my friends, were I an actual poet, I might answer your queries But as one who merely dabbles, permit me to leave you with this: In all poetry there is one common part ~ The beating of a very, very human heart