Poetry Defined

Okay, so, "poetry". I know. I did not get it either. Still don't say I do.

But I write in that mode sometimes.

In a college class, I finally came to understand what goes on in a poem. It is a puzzle between the poet and the reader. The question is, "Can you find out what feeling I am thinking about?" That is a very metacognitive thing to do. The poet gets a feeling, or image or something and then hides it using the rules of poetry.
Those rules include things like rhymes, rhythms or repetitions. You can use these or any others or none at all. The best ones hide grand things without obscuring them. I am no judge of poetry but the competition seems fierce. Surely it is a simple definition but it suffices for this.
The poetry here does not pretend to be anything but a puzzle between you and me.