> ...To me a poem isn't a poem if it doesn't have at least SOME elements of poetic device like meter, alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyming, etc. If it doesn't have any of these, it is not poetry but prose arranged on the page to masquerade as poetry.
>

Strange that such a statement should sound so bold and impolitic to me -- I suppose it's because so much poetry in the last half-century fits your description of "prose masquerading as poetry". This includes "real" poets as well as amateurs; William Carlos Williams (whom I don't much care for) comes to mind for one.

However, I actually like your "strict" definition of poetry; it's refreshing to hear, and I think I have secretly felt pretty much the same way. Nor do I think there's anything really deficient about someone who writes prose in a poetic arrangement instead of poetry in the more strict, traditional sense. It's nice to be able to differentiate between the two.

I finished a poem recently that actually falls into the "pseudo-poetic prose" category. Since I'm not especially crazy about it and don't plan to submit it to the Poetry Pool, I'll just take the opportunity to post it here instead. Anything to keep the momentum of this thread going. :-)

Iss "high on Prose-ac" achar

**********

words i did not have at the time

Kiss me again!
In the moment I broke from you,
I knew nothing
But the suddenness of parting,
The brief, giddy tumbling of the mayfly,
The unraveling of the world
As its keystone falls away.
Kiss me!
The thirst of Tantalus is on me.
Let me drink and drink
And know nothing but the drinking
Nothing but the press of your lips
And the tightening knot
In the middle of me.
Kiss me forever!
Let us cling to each other,
Waist-deep in the midst of the Lethe,
Past and future swept away
In the current flowing around and through us.
Oh, kiss me again!