I'm trying to decide if this is a poem, or just a statement. Opinions?

Question:In Search of Trust

I do not trust a soul that doesn't dance
At least a little bit
It has no real fire inside of it
It is like an electric light in the middle of the woods:
It just doesn't quite belong.

My soul used to dance
It was fiery, if private
And began to jitterbug whenever it saw the head of a pin

But age and life have doused the flames
And the pins now
Are all hidden away in haystacks;
There is no dancing anymore
And it seems
The music too is beginning to fade.

How can a man trust himself if he no longer has a soul?
It is simple: he cannot.
So start up the band
Turn over the haystack
And come alive again,
If only within the walls of your own home....
(The world will follow...
The world will follow).

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: In Search of Trust

I do not trust a soul that doesn't dance
At least a little bit
It has no real fire inside of it
It is like an electric light in the middle of the woods:
It just doesn't quite belong.

My soul used to dance
It was fiery, if private
And began to jitterbug whenever it saw the head of a pin

But age and life have doused the flames
And the pins now
Are all hidden away in haystacks;
There is no dancing anymore
And it seems
The music too is beginning to fade.

How can a man trust himself if he no longer has a soul?
It is simple: he cannot.
So start up the band
Turn over the haystack
And come alive again,
If only within the walls of your own home....
(The world will follow...
The world will follow).

Definitely a poem and a good example of free form/verse.

Now, I rather liked the ending. To me it seems to say:

"YO! Stop worrying about what people think and LIVE! People will get it and if they don't, at least you will. And then they'll see that you get it and the effect will be the same."

It's a theme I enjoy.

it is a statement in the form of a poem telling people to get fired up again. enjoy life . dance.
remember all poetry is a statment about something.

It's a poem, not just a statement. The meter, the imagery, the repetition of key words/phrases, all sound like poetry.

A poem IS a statement, always. It says look at this. It says this is how I think, or this is what I feel. It is also a question, always. It asks what do YOU think? how do YOU feel? I like this poem, it does all of those things. Its special genius, YOUR special genius is that you have used the material of several old cliches and reworked them into something entirely new. What I myself got from this poem was this: just because I have arthritis of the bones, it doesn't need to mean that I have arthritis of the soul.

It's both, and you have a fairly decent bit of work. The ending for me could have been wrapped up better, but the beginning struck me quite a bit.

In Search of Trust is a poem that makes a statement about the soullessness of joyless apathy , to me. And how the one soul dancing on a pinhead affects the whole world. Together this makes for an inspiring, uplifting ending . There are some really great lines, great images in this poem- a wonderful work. Thank you.