Stone Soup

Where young artists paint the world with words

The international magazine of stories, poems, and art by young writers and artists. Published continuously since 1973.

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What Poetry Isn’t

Poetry is like
how sometimes, if you try hard enough,
for just a second
you can see a spiderweb,
in the sunlight.
After that,
it’s gone, no matter how hard you look.

Poetry is chaos written out on paper.

Poetry is what might happen,
if the universe took a pencil in hand
and wrote something.

Poetry is a song not meant to be sung.

Poetry is the feeling of a sunset or a sunrise.

Or maybe
it’s not.