AN ANAL-OGY ON THE ORIGIN OF POETRY
To give birth is to reproduce. It is a primary function of a multi-cellular being, or a poet in this case.
Poetry inspires/produces/fertilizes seeds of thought in the mind of its reader. Therefore, poetry is a catalyst, a multi-cellular organism of sorts. The letters in each word within a poem can be considered a single cell. Letters/cells joined together produce words; and words/multi-celled organism, when read by the human mind, produce thoughts and mental images. However, it might (or might not) be worth mentioning that the host poem itself cannot decide what thoughts and/or mental images it will generate/inspire/produce in the mind/womb of the reader. That will depend on what other thought(s) in the reader's mind will join with the thought(s) fertilized by the poem, or word(s) in the poem.
Each new thought which a poem fertilizes/generates/produces/inspires in the mind of the reader can be considered to be the offspring of the original or thought-provoking poem.
When a new poem is composed from the thoughts/offspring generated by the original poem, the new poem can be considered to be the grandchild of the original poem.
This intricate anal-ogy can get a little bit complicated/tricky though. For instance, when new thoughts produced in the reader's mind join with other thoughts already mulling around in the reader's mind, a new poem produced from this mingling of seeds-of-thought might produce an enigma called "incestial offspring". It is a fairly new concept I might add, thought of by me just a few seconds ago. Anyway, this weird phenomenon can occur when the poet and the reader share a single thought, and then that one thought joins with others in the mind of the reader, producing a single thought only thought by the reader. I, personally, don't have such single thoughts.
These single thoughts do seem to occur, however, whenever poems are read. Perhaps you've encountered some while out sowing your own seeds, like when a reader goes, "Gee, I never thought of that." .....or "I never looked at it (the image thingy) like that before." These are just two examples. Perhaps you have encountered similar or different. Unfortunately, if the readers who make such comments are not poets and fail to produce any new poems (and they are the only recipients of the new thought) then what you end up with can be considered still-born thoughts. New thoughts must be able to live, breath and germinate in the mind, or they will be dead in the water/womb of such non-poets.
Some may think that poetry "evolves". But, it doesn't, really. What it actually does is transmute, beginning with the first poem ever written and working on down through the eons. I hope you are following me, but are growing bored, because I'm running out of unique seeds of thought.
Oh, speaking of unique. One unique thing I have discovered while imbibing in this anal-ogy of the origin of poetry, (and I hope someone else agrees with me here) is that no poet can produce twins. "They" call those illegitimate seeds-of-thought. Some consider such seeds a by-product of rape. If you know of any poet out there claiming to have produced a twin, it would behoove the rest of us honest and law-abiding poets if you would report them to your local PP (Poetry Police). I regret that I had their contact info at one time, but I have hence lost it.
Well, that's it for this cross-section of my Anal-Ogy pronounced Anal-Oh Gee) on the Origin of Poetry. I hope I have fertilized some new seeds in your poetic wombs.
Perpetually producing and analyzing, I am
Lil-Lost-It-Multi-Cellular-Ripple