Difference between poetry and prose?

[Rose Love]

O...M....G...If I wasn't intimated before, I certainly am now. I thought there was a distinct definition for "poetry" and "prose" (I don't even know what "verse" is). After all these answers, it looks like a subjective distinction.

I didn't know what any of those poetic vices were. It seems that even daily speech could be categorized as poetry. Who doesn't speak without using figurative language or metaphor?

Todd's is pretty much the only answer I could understand . It's the same for me--it's a feeling.

The writing I posted in the Miscellaneous Poetry section called Precarious Love is one that I might have called poetic prose: http://pigpenpoetry.com/Thread-Precarious-Love It is more poetic than many poems I read on here, but I actually still feel it to be prose...and yet I don't think it's prose, because it's not really a story, but an expression of an experience I had. What is it, actually?

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On the contrary, well written free verse uses a selection of poetic techniques and sonic devices -- and it must use them well, because there is no ready-made skeleton of form to hang it on. Without some structure developed by the poet, it just ends up a lump of occasionally-twitching flesh.

This, for example, is a delightfully gory bit of poetry I mean eeeeeewwwww!!!!