So I think basic education system failed me. I remember in school, we’re taught that poems needed to rhyme and that it needed a pattern for each verse. But then.. there’s free form poetry and there’s spoken word poetry..
What makes poetry different from descriptive sentences and from songs?
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Second the other comment. Historically the definition, or practice, has changed.
In English for a long time (until the 1900s) most people would have said poems have set line lengths and meters (e.g., iambic pentameter). Rhyme was still very common, but not required. (See Milton, Wordsworth.)
After Modernism, and especially once the “prose poem” becomes a normal thing, it seems like Anything Goes. Still, line length and rhythm seem to be important in most things calling themselves poems. Some would also say a higher proportion of figurative language than in most prose is required, but that’s in flux as well.
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