Free Verse - Echoes of Ancient Language
I am attempting to become and imagist through writing Free Verse. I am but a green poet…my voice is from a free soul, and thus I write free verse. But, what exactly IS free verse. Perhaps it is easier to say what it is not… but for me, this is what I look for… this is how I aspire to write what is called Free Verse.
There is a certain freedom in writing free verse, but that does not mean it does not have some very important components that must be adhered to, to make it good poetry.
It may be free of rhyme, but not necessarily. It must be artistically laid out so each line is as important as the next. through separate or split phrases.
Punctuation may or may not be used, depending on how the poet wishes the reader to take a break and pause and reflect on the stated meaning before it. I look for a poem that, when spoken aloud, as the sound of a symphony, not the metronome.
Free Verse does not use any particular pattern of stress or number of syllables per line. Although without regular meter, it is not without rhythmic effects and organization. Free verse can be organized around syntactic units, word or sound repetitions, or the rhythm created by a line break.
The cadence in free verse should capture that of emotional, every day speech where we pause for emphasis on the importance of what we are saying.
I look for colorful words and the placement of those words that convey meaning.
Figurative language is paramount: metaphor, simile, alliteration, imagery, onomatopoeia, hyperbole. These create imagery and sensory elements that are necessary for a great free verse poem.
While many do not understand, free verse does take a great deal of work. To learn how to evoke readers, evoke deep meaning to our writing, to evoke sensory commonality to our writing, can take a very long time to grasp.
I continually search for that one great free verse that says something more than real life. I see it as soul talk. Soul talk is that which speaks so definitively that every cell of our body catches the sensory information; images, sounds, taste, feel, and smell of that which is our truth.
I want it to sing like ancient language, ancient messages that my soul fully recognizes. I want it to hum in the language my soul knew before it knew words. This is what free verse is to me.
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