Free Verse - Poems Do Not Need to Rhyme

Fly with Words

(Words are Wings!)

Photo by Georgia LV

After a year of daily poems and strategy ideas.  I will be revisiting one strategy/technique for each day of April.  Today's thought is: poems do not need meter and rhyme.  Free verse poetry can be a feast for reader and writer alike.

Poems in Free Verse

Students - last April, when this poem year began, I did not write much free verse at all.  I love the puzzle of rhythm and rhyme, and so I relied on that cradle first in my writing.  There were a few times during the year, however, when I challenged myself to write in free verse, when I did not allow myself to rhyme or write in strict meter.

Looking back at all of the poems, I now realize that these are some of my favorites.  Somehow, writing in free verse encouraged me to drink deeper from my inner well.   Do I still love rhyme and meter?  Yes!  But my goal now is to write more free verse too, to deepen my understanding of imagery.

 from October 2010

from July 2010

from October 2010

 from July 2010

Here are a few more free verse poems from this past year...

Trust

Grocery Stories

Wyoming

Steady Stripes

Seeing

This Month's Poetry Revisits and Lessons So Far

April 1 - Poems about Poems

April 2 - Imagery

April 3 - Poems about Animals We Know
April 4 - Line Breaks and White Space
April 5 - Poems from Everyday Life
Today -  Free Verse

Go ahead...let go the bounds of rhyme and meter.  Follow meaning and image to the ends of the earth.  And as you do, remember to listen to that wee inner voice - the one with all of the secrets.

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Grandpa Doesn't Like to Talk - Poem #323

War Memorial in Wales, NY

Photo by Amy LV

Students - I read the newspaper every day, and our current war continues on day after week after month.  Seeing flags at half-mast and reading about the funerals of young men and women saddens me.  It also makes me think about my grandfather, who died when I was two.  Grandpa fought in World War II, and my mother told me that he didn't like to talk about it.  In this poem, I tried to capture that silence and also the reflective actions of one who remembers.  And also one who watches quietly, respectfully.

Many people write poems about sad thoughts and times.  Doing so can help us heal and understand, and words can keep us from getting lonely too.

This book, AMERICA AT WAR, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Stephen Alcorn, includes more than fifty poems about the emotional toll of war, traced through the American Revolution straight through the Iraq War. 

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Does Your Grandma Tell Stories? #282

Grandma's Stories

by Amy LV

Students - this poem idea came from the way my mother and mother-in-law enjoy telling our children stories about when we were little!  None of the stories in this poem are actually true, but there's a really funny one I won't tell here (my brother-in-law would blush). "Tell me a story about..." is a phrase which we expect to hear at extended family dinners, and it helps us hold on to our history.  

So, if you have not yet asked your grandparents about your parents and aunts and uncles when they were little - do!  You will find all kinds of writing ideas in your family's stories...heartwarming and sad and silly.

One of my favorite free verse poetry books is HEY WORLD, HERE I AM! by Jean Little.  This book speaks so honestly and simply and has given me lots to ponder about family.

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We welcome everyone to add to the collaborative New Year's poem begun by Charles Ghigna and me the other day!  On Sunday, we will put everything together and repost it next week.

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