i can see she's been hurt by some presumptuous people...

& there's already a massive french fry balancing upon her left shoulder.

if i'm not mistaken, the original post said nothing about poetry without form not being art, did it? it said "is it important to know form as an artist?"

to me, that doesn't pass a single judgment on any non-form stuff...

and it doesn't even speak to the work/product itself...

it's not akin to saying hiphop isn't music.

it's aksin to asking, "should someone going into hiphop production learn about the bomb squad, pete rock, dr dre, primo & rza?" knowing yr craft, honing yr talent...is that important? learning as much as you can about what you do...does that matter?

and to that, i'll say definitely. yes, yes AND yes.

and this is coming from someone who HATES writing in form.

but it took me attempting, and wrestling with it...to understand that yeah, like RGV said, excellence comes from mastery. i ain't tryna be an amateur forever. i could know everything there is to know and STILL write in freeform...that doesn't make my stuf not art. it just makes me informed. when you're informed, you can make choices. when you aren't just do what your limited skill set allows...