Poetry and the Sorites Paradox

The "Sorites Paradox" is a famous psychology thought experiment that asks the question, "When does a heap of sand become a heap of sand?" If we grab a heap of sand and take one grain away, well then it is still a heap. But, what if we kept doing that until only one grain of sand is left? That's clearly not a heap, so when does a heap of sand, no longer become a heap of sand? As long as two extremes exist in a category, there must be a moment when that switch occurs. While you may never have known the name of this paradox, you have definitely heard this question come up before. You probably know it under another name, "What is art?"

Whenever something is appreciated by a group of people as being interesting, there will always be a handful of people who say that it isn't art. Whether it's video games, crafts, or a particularly controversial movie, many "smart" people will try and solve the Sorites paradox above. While I have never participated in this debate, I recently was made aware of my own take on it when it came to poetry.

I have always been confused about what does and doesn't constitute a poem. When you're young, you have this idea in your mind of what a poem should look like, but once you start becoming more and more educated, you quickly realize that that idea of a poem you have is far too narrow. To me, it seems like people like to just play hard and fast with the definition of a poem whenever the topic is brought up. This isn't me trying to be condescending or dismissive of the poetry art form, I am just genuinely confused on what constitutes a poem versus a short story or other shorter forms of text. I am a person who likes to fall back on my analytical side, but it really just feels like we are taking the same approach to what we call collections of sand grains and something that people make for a living.