what is poetry?

[milo]

Anything less than 457 words.

what about Gaiman's 99 word short story?
also, does this mean that Endymion and The Waste Land are not poetry?

[font=Courier]You're too fast for me. Whole thing was:

Anything less than 457 words.

(Sounds simplistic, but it's actually more accurate than most other definitions.)

Accurate, NOT foolproof.
The 457 comes from a paper that shows this definition is correct 90% of the time on 'modern' (since 1930) wordage.

Show me one that's better.
[font=Courier]

well, it's good enough for me anyway. At least no one asked what makes /good/ poetry?