Poems Are Stories, Not Prose

Poem is about a boy's determination to remember everything that had happened before, and this complete erasure of her memory. Poems can be more obviously narrative than not but they are still stories in their own right. For me it essentially is to do with rhythm, really rhythm and breadth. I find myself saying word, words to this effect a lot to my students. But if they ever forget that poetry is a very primitive thin to do with pulse, and heartbeat and breath, then something has gone wrong.