Writing Free-VerseBased on Resource Books by Nancy Atwell

Free-VerseONE DEFINITION OF FREE-VERSE

POETRYFree verse is poetry that doesn’t have a

regular rhythm, line length, or rhyme scheme. It relies on the natural rhythms of speech. Today it is the form of poetry that most American poets prefer. Free-verse poetry invents and follows its own forms, patterns and rules.

Free-Verse poets use the conventions of the genre to create voice, power, and meaning.

The Power of I

First person experiences need a first person. Make sure your I is present and is thinking, feeling, seeing, acting. Give your readers someone to be with. Find your voice as a poet. Wave your I flag in your poetry.

1st draft- The Power of IWindThe wind rustles the treesLike it does the long grasses of the meadow,

commands the water to move in ripplesLike tiny mountains and rests in the sailsOf a small boat on its way home.Then the wind leaves to rustle other treesBlow through other meadows,Move other tiny mountainsand send other small boats home.

_Ceysa McKechine

Wind- 3rd Draft-Wave your I FlagI listen to the wind rustle through the treesAs it does the long grasses in the meadows.I watch as it commands the water to move in ripplesLike tiny mountains and rest in the sails of a small boat,Pushing it home.

Then the wind abandons the small boat to rustle other trees,Blow through other meadows,command other tiny mountains to move,Send other small boats home.

As I watch night begin to settle,I wonder, will I ever find myself in the small boat,Watching the same wind fly over the green landscape,Longing for it to land in my sails and send me home?

Beware the ParticipleWhat is a participle? A verb in disguise-a verb that functions as an

adjective- ParticiplesParticiples are -ed and -ing verbs that

function as adjectives—for example:The sleeping cat is brown.The freshly picked tomatoes look delicious.I am going to the store.The kids were dropped off at school.http://grammarist.com/grammar/nonfinite-verbs/

Perched on a tree stumpTrying to admire

the lobster pound woods

Looking at the gun metal Grey ashes dancing above

Like skeletons rubbing shoulders

Watching birch trees surrender their whitesSnow sticking in shady spots

And tired ancestors of fern waving goodbye

Hearing no birds callExcept for three gulls circling the pond

And screaming at the wind

Smelling old air, Not even smelling the balsams,

And noticing no signs of what’s to come.But, deep inside, knowing

And saying a prayer of thanks For the gifts of imagination and memory-

The twin blessings of the human conditionThat each spring survive

The dismal days of march in Maine.

Leads Begin InsideIn the words of Horace, one of the greatest

lyric poets of all time (65 B.C.E. – 8 B.C.E.), begin poems “in the midst of things.” Start your poems inside

]“ an experience, feeling, observation, or

memory

Abstract Vs. ImageryAn abstraction is anything that is not tangible

and does not bring a picture directly to mind. Love, future, grief, and time are all abstractions.

Images are anything that are universally seen similarly in our minds. Apples, ladders, and canes are all images – we all see them in a similar way.

Conclude Strongly

The conclusion often conveys a poem’s deepest meaning. It needs to be strong – to resonate after the reader has finished the poem.

The conclusion should leave a reader with a feeling, idea, image, or question.

Experiment: try different endings until you find the one that best conveys your meaning.

Maybe try an echo structure: repeat significant lines from the lead, or elsewhere, in the conclusion. Give your poem the time it needs for the right conclusion.

Breaking lines and Stanzas and Punctuating

Poetry is written to be spoken. Break lines to emphasize pauses or silences. Break on nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Try to draft your poem in lines. When you revise,

insert // between lines to indicate a new line break, and ----------------- between lines to indicate a new stanza break. Experiment with the size, shape, and length of lines and stanzas. In general, you may want to punctuate and capitalize the lines of your poems as if they’re prose, but don’t be afraid to experiment with/without caps and punctuation, either.

Rain LullabyI listen to the rain as it drizzles on our roofAnd snuggle even deeperUnder the warm weight of my covers.My hands open my book,And I begin to read.In a moment I’m lostAs the story unfolds.

Slowly, slowly, I feelMy eyelids turn to lead.I shut my bookAnd turn off the light.Already adriftI close my eyes,So glad to be where I am-Half asleepIn the warmthOf my bedWith the rain as my lullaby

-Molly Jordan

About Lines“ I cannot say too many times how

powerful the techniques of line length and line breaks are. You

cannot swing the lines around, or fling strong-sounding words, or

scatter soft ones, to no purpose.”- Mary Oliver

The MeetStep up.Take your mark.Go.I burst off the starting

block,fly through the air, slice into the water,and glide.I stroke, gasp for airuntil I’m at the end of the

pool, where I flip and push off as hard as I can. The screams of the crowd fill my ears as I take one more breath, reach the wall, hit it, WIN. - David MacDonald

StanzasComes from the Latin word stantia,

which means “standing” or “stopping”Later became stanza = “stopping

place” or “room”“The stanza-break almost always

indicates a pause, however slight, just as you have to slow down to go through a door.”

– Ron Padgett

The StormUnder gloomy gray skies hanging low I pulled on my oilskins and climbed

into the wooden skiff.I was skeptical; you were not. It’ll clear up, you assured me. So off we set. Before even the first trap was hauled, rain began to trickle down our cheeks and onto the orange rubber of the

oilskins. Within a few traps it was streaming from the sky, lashing onto our bowed heads.

.

The Storm (continued)Trap after trap we hauled, and I did my jobs mechanically as we collected our booty; mottled brown and green lobsters. The dog bounded along the seaweedy rocks, trying to keep up with

us. I shivered beneath my hood.

We pulled into the dock with numbed faces and frozen fingers. I met my black dog under the trees on the shore and with stiff hands tried to unbuckle my soaked life vest as we walked to the boat shop at the top of the hill, as the rain poured down on the blue-gray ocean

- Annie Kass

About Stanzas“The main thing is to make rooms that are

big enough to be useful, shapely enough to be

attractive, and not so empty as to be disappointing.”

-Rod Padgett

“ Poetry is especially the art of

compression.”- Robert Wallace

“I know a poem

is finished when I can’t find another word to cut.”

-Bobbi Katz

A Little Friendship (cut)We met on an airplane. She was from Germany and on her way to visit her grandmother in the States. We had finished our vacation in Germany and were headed home to Maine.

First we exchanged visits in our airplane neighborhoods.

We listened to music and watched Bugs Bunny videos. Then we crawled under seats, poked people’s feet, and scurried away, trying to suppress our giggles.

Near the back of the plane, two brothers played with Batman toys. We despised Batman and chanted an anti-Batman song to the tune of “Jingle Bells.”

We wrote our addresses on slips of paper and exchanged them. We said good-bye as we collected our baggage.But never saw her again.

I lost my slip of paper.I think she lost hers too.We never wrote to each other. So I consider her a brief friend, one who helped pass the time on a six-hour

flight and made a memory.

- Lucas Mayer

Cut to the BoneWhen the poet can’t find another word to cut,

a poem is done.Weigh every line and every word: does it do

anything for your poem? Does a smart reader need it? And, is it elegant shorthand yet?

Use RepetitionBeware of ineffective repetition: a word

repeated in too close proximity to no purpose or effect and that sounds awkward.

Use effective repetition to stress an important word, phrase, idea or theme; to move a poem; to build a poem’s momentum; to create cadence.

When you revise, read your poem with your ears and listen for its rhythms.

Is this clear? Can you do it? What are your observations?

Figurative Language, or Two Things at OnceLiteral: Language is true to fact. It uses

words in accordance with their actual meanings.Eg. My dog is a carnivore

Figurative: Language makes comparisons between unrelated things or ideas, in order to show something about a subject. Eg. In the kitchen, when I cook, my dog is a tap

dancer.

Figurative Language, or Two Things at Once (continued)Three kinds of figurative language:

Metaphor: (Greek) means literally transference. The writer transfers qualities of one thing to another thing. A metaphor has two parts: A = B: something is something else. The B part, the something else, shows how the poet feels about or perceives the A part. Eg. Thumb

The odd, friendless boy raised by four aunts.- Philip Dasey

Figurative Language, or Two Things at Once (continued)

Simile (from the Latin similes: similar) : A kind of metaphor that uses like or as to compare two things: A is like B Eg. Thunder threatens

Like a sound that rolls around and aroundin a mean dog’s throat

- Martha SherwoodPersonification (from the Greek prosopa, meaning

“face” or “mask”) : a metaphor that gives human or physical qualities to an object, animal, or an idea. Eg. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window

panes.- T.S. Eliot