Some sickeningly sappy romantics might call poetry the way to a woman's heart, but they're wrong: good poetry acts like a surgeon's knife. It sees a "problem"—the specific thing that the poet is addressing—and with its swift cut leaves the reader with the desired response in his emotions.
Perhaps I'd better translate that. Good poetry leaves the reader with the emotions the poet wants him to have. If you've read Ender's Game, you may notice the parallel in that definition to Valentine Wiggen's little gift. (Yes, I'm an Orson Scott Card fan.)
The difference between poetry and prose? Prose explores an idea or some aspect of it with some sort of thoroughness. Poetry provides a snapshot, and it ideally flows more fluidly than prose tends to. (Though well-written prose can flow almost like poetry, as in the books I've read by Gail Carson Levine—author of Ella Enchanted—whose stories are complimented by being read aloud.) Poetry can tell a story, too, as in the example of my poem, "Rehinged."
Poetry, like a short story, should all be geared for a specific emotional response. Therefore, it most often focus on emotions rather than the actions a short story requires for its plot. Or, at least, it focuses on making the reader more acutely involved of the emotions than is common in short stories.
So if your story is more interested in the emotions of a story rather than the plot, a poem might be what you want to use to tell it.
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