REGARDING the Poem of Day, The Art of Reading by Kate Hendry (The Herald, May 18): according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, poetry is defined as the "elevated expression of thought or feeling in metrical or rhythmical form". Prose is stated as being, "ordinary, non-metrical form of written or spoken language". Since the piece presents but one occurrence of rhyme and nothing whatsoever in the way of metre, poetry, it is not. It is prose, simply a series of images, each image described with a couple sentences, which in total, might comprise a small paragraph.

"My father thought it dross," it says in the last stanza. As a critique of the work perhaps a little harsh, however, it definitely lacks effort.

Maureen McGarry-O'Hanlon,

Dalvait, Riverside, Balloch.