Poetry is a special form of communication that uses language in a way that's distinct from everyday speech or writing. Prose, which makes up the majority of the writing we see, from newspapers to textbooks to blogs, tends to be straightforward in communicating its point. Poetry, as opposed to prose, uses more beautiful, expressive, abstract, or flashy wording, and it often focuses on conveying feelings and emotional truths. In addition, while prose is usually organized by paragraphs and appears as blocks of text, poetry often uses line breaks to follow a pattern of rhyme or rhythm. Some poems even use the lengths of their lines to create specific shapes on the page. Although difficult to define simply, poetry is usually not hard to recognize. It's just poetic!