Well, this is a difficult thing to discern, I'll admit. You see, you say that it should be the one that best subscribes to my defenition of poetry. The problem is: most of the poetry I like (outside of usage in songs) is of the old structured variety - maybe it's what I can comprehend the best, I don't know. Structure and meter - that to me is most clearly a poem. I cannot think free-verse very well. Moreover, the penultimate poem, to me (though I certainly don't limit myself to only this), is that which tells a story* and, in its grandest incarnation, the epic, such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. So, as such, it is difficult for me, when poems lack a meter and rhyme and the like, to judge them. However, what I can say about these is that I prefer the mood ones over a reflection of circumstance. I'll admit, due to their length, I only scanned the beginning of most - I don't have a poetry reading mind right now - but of what I did read, this I can say with surety. I liked The Illusion Tree the best of these. That's my verdict. If clear structure and rhyme is lacking, I'd look next to the mood of setting and word usage of the poem - and that one seems most to my liking in that regard.
*That is, lays and ballads and long poems such as that. Ie. A king there was in days of old/ere men yet walked upon the mould./His power was reared in cavern's shade/ his hand was over glenn and glade. - the Lay of Leithian.
By the way, is this thread for people to list an assortment of poems and ask which sounds the best, or did you merely wish for a commentary on this array?
