You're asking, "What is poetry?" For those who love literature, who enjoy grandiloquence, what isn't poetry? Poetry is a scream, a declaration of love, a clenched fist, hope, liberation, and so on... Certainly, all of these elements can be found in poetry, but they are also found in prose. To understand what poetry is, I believe it's more accurate to search for the characteristics that distinguish it from prose.
Let me illustrate my point with an example:
"I cry as I remember our laughter."
You must have heard this line before. What is the poet trying to say? "When I remember our laughter, I cry." This is a prose sentence. What has the poet done? By evaluating each word of this prose sentence, they have conveyed this feeling into its final expression. If the poet were in front of us, what would we see? A person crying. Therefore, the first word of the line will be "I cry." Wouldn't we wonder why they are crying? It needs to be said. Because they remembered something. So, the second and third words of the line will be "as I remember." What is it that they are crying about when they remember? They say "our laughter," and thus each word falls into place, revealing the familiar line. This is why it's said that "Poetry is a saying, an art of constructing beautiful forms with words." The poet is someone who knows this art. Since the expression tools of this art are language and its elements, the person who wants to write poetry should thoroughly understand all the rules of the language they use, know their words intimately like classmates, and understand when and how each word should be used to fulfill its expected duty.
Poetry can be written not just by hearing, finding bright images, but also with this knowledge about language and words, with these affections, with this attention. What we expect from a poet is this behavior. What will determine the quality of their work is the power to create poetry. Whether the poet talks about the cypress-like stature of a lover, a war, the poverty of their neighborhood, or injustice, it's their choice, as long as they never forget they are writing poetry above all else. Baki Efendi, Yahya Kemal, Nâzım Hikmet, Ahmet Muhip, Orhan Veli, they don't speak of the same things, but we call them all poets; because they all believe that poetry is an art of creating beautiful forms, not about discussing this or that.
Therefore, there's no need to think whether poetry is for society or for a cause. A poet is not blind or deaf to not see or hear what's happening around them; of course, they will talk about the things that affect them the most. Just as we expect shoes from a shoemaker, let's expect poetry from a poet. Just as a shoemaker makes both dress shoes, slippers, boots, and sneakers, a poet writes poems of suffering, love, rebellion, death, or salvation according to their day and circumstances. The only problem is not to interfere with the artist's creative power.
I've been following the 'Kaynak' magazine with love and attention for a year now. It mostly publishes poems by youngsters whose mustaches have just started growing. There are some promising ones among them, but, if you don't mind me saying (and not only in Kaynak, we see this in other art magazines too), most of the newcomers don't take poetry seriously; they almost consider it a daily pastime of the heart. And then, how similar they all are! Yet fifteen years ago, the poems of Ahmet Muhip, Fazıl Hüsnü, and Ziya Osman were not alike at all. Because the personalities of all three were clear even then. I wish the young friends would take poetry as their love and concern, try to discover the mysteries of poetry on their own, make efforts to learn what the previous poets did, what they brought to poetry, how they overcame difficulties, and always remember that poetry is a work of patience and resistance.
You ask, "Can poetry be written with the words created by Nurullah Ataç?" Of course not. But it can certainly be written with those who grasp those words. Besides, Nurullah Ataç hasn't said anything like that today.
According to my understanding of poetry, there can't be a separate language for poetry apart from the language of conversation. Look at the poems of Melih Cevdet, Oktay Rifat, and others like them; they are all written with the words we use in our everyday conversations. In my opinion, this is the right path in poetry. While fresh, vivid words that my mother, sister, and daughter use remain, I can't write poetry with moldy words from dictionaries.
I can cite examples of young newcomers along with poets like Yahya Kemal, Nâzım Hikmet, Ahmet Muhip, Orhan Veli, Melih Cevdet, Oktay Rifat, Cahit Külebi, who are masters of their craft, but not to be a second Muhip or a second Melih, but to find their own personalities; because only through their personalities can they reach the future centuries.
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