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English experiential poet of open verse& creator of the FOOTLE (singular form)&EMAGI digital reverse ekphrasis.A regular @PS since 2007 ,with 9500+ poems posted&sponsor of 1260 contests ( Amazon books- (500+) reviews)GOOGLE my POETRY BLOGS @https://www.blogger.com/profile/02166493604739619406.Read an Ekphrasis e-book for free @ http://free-ekphrasis-ebook.blogspot.com/

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WHAT IS YOUR FORM OF FREE VERSE?inc update A,B,C,D

Blog Posted:4/24/2017 5:45:00 AM

Edward Storer (a founding father of Imagism as a genre) wrote in his 1916 New Republic article ' Form in Free Verse'...

Everyman's free verse is different

If you write 'free verse' do you agree with Storer

or what 'rules ' or technique do you follow ***

How do you ensure some reading ( or reciting for that matter) follows your conception or is this irrelevant to you ?

If you don't write free verse why is this ?

UPDATE A

Storer made war on all poetic conventions . . . and [for him] the soul of poetry was the vers libre *–heroic blank verse cut up and phrased according to the flow of the emotion

*Vers libre was the French fore runner of what later in the English speaking world became known as Free verse.

UPDATE B ***

Some of the rules/techniques mentioned in comments 11pm GMT 24th:

punctation/spaces/hyphens/emdash/ellipses/pause/enjambment/ stanza break/ line breaks/capitalisation/formatting

Others (from my 2013 kindle study guides 'Free Verse-the genre. An Appraisal')that I would add to these 'rules' are:

natural speech rhythm(the essence perhaps of the form ) plus. indentation as punctuation/pauses implied by syntax/metre replaced by cadence in rhythm

UPDATE C

This is how PS defines Free Verse in link above

...recognizable as 'poetry' by virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers can perceive to be part of a coherent whole.

UPDATE D perhaps I'll leave the final observation to

Yvors Winters ,a poet and a critic of free verse considered" the only 'norm' was perpetual variation"

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Julia
Ward

Date: 4/26/2017 3:31:00 PM

"C" is correct...I would add that a free verse poem has to have a certain amount of constriction in order for it to not be wayward.

Cyndi
Macmillan

Date: 4/25/2017 5:15:00 PM

BINGO!!!!! www.cprw.com/without-a-net-optic-graphic-and-acoustic-formations-in-free-verse-by-ernest-hilbert I found this and haven't read it yet, but I think it speaks on what I've been trying to get at. Free Verse itself has now developed associative "forms" which although do not have specific requirements, do seem to follow styles. (I'll read this later. Wanted to share it here.)

Doug
Vinson

Date: 4/25/2017 12:23:00 PM

I think free verse is just that. There may be characteristics of one free verse poem that are consistent throughout - I don't think "perpetual variation" would be necessary within a given free verse poem, though it would not be forbidden either - it's all in how the author wants it to be. Personally, while I lean toward consistency in a given poem, I wouldn't want all poems to share the same characteristics.

Brian
Strand

Date: 4/25/2017 3:40:00 AM

From your contributions heretofor and the 'rules' used by most 'free versers' a better description for free verse would be OPEN FORM poetry

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/25/2017 3:04:00 PM

We speak of the responsibility of journalists ... but we never talk about the responsibility of literary writers. I've really pondered about this for a decade.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/25/2017 3:02:00 PM

(continued) Take for example Syrian children being gassed to death and the war crime of targeting a hospital. That deserves the attention of poets. But should we describe a three year old dying in beatific language? Or should we focus on the horror as a means of protest, as a call for change?

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/25/2017 2:59:00 PM

Doug, good points. Look at the most famous rondeau (arguably) of all time: in Flanders Fields. It is beautiful, soulful. Still, when it comes to war, oppression, I wonder what is the role of poets? There were artists commissioned to capture war scenes in WWII. As poets we balance beauty and capturing truth, yes??

Doug Vinson
Date: 4/25/2017 12:27:00 PM

Good question, there, Cyndi. I can see war, for all the horrors involved, being graceful and hypnotic - the balletic swoops of planes, the divine arcs of tracers rising into the night sky...

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/25/2017 8:00:00 AM

Agreed. I think they meant free from the expectation of rhyme and meter -- though a great deal of free form still uses a type of rhythm. Others, freely use staccato for effect. I've often thought if I were to write a war poem it MUST use staccato. War is not harmonic nor lyrical. Why would I want to make beautiful what is not?

Brian
Strand

Date: 4/25/2017 3:36:00 AM

I have added three updates to my blog which I hope will add to the discussion.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/25/2017 7:57:00 AM

Awesome, Brian. I remember years ago when you'd put up quotes from famous poets, pithy little gems. They always were thought inducing. This is such a positive and encouraging blog.

Agnes
Krampe

Date: 4/24/2017 3:19:00 PM

Interesting question, Brian. I have never thought about my "form" of free verse and don't know what "rules" I follow. I do not think a poet can ever be sure the reader/reciter follows her intentions, because poetry needs to leave open room for interpretation - otherwise it is boring. I work with punctuation and capitalization to indicate intent, so that enjambment is visible, for example, but still, a line break, to me, is a slight pause - otherwise I would not put one there. The formatting of a free verse poem hints at the poet's intent; there must be reasons for word groupings, unusual line breaks besides the end of a phrase - and they can add so much meaning beyond the mere words.

Agnes Krampe
Date: 4/24/2017 3:20:00 PM

When I don't write free verse it is because I feel that the meter and/or rhyme are needed in this particular poem so it can sound just... right. Not a very scientific answer, I am afraid.

Cyndi
Macmillan

Date: 4/24/2017 8:04:00 AM

Love this blog. I could sit here all day and discuss this. Free verse poets do not necessarily belong to different 'schools,' as many like to pop between free verse styles. In this case, sometimes the subject or theme come into play. There is the esoteric poem, veiled in mystery, energized by language and recreating the definition of certain words. Then, there are the imagists... simpler language but with broader meanings. There are free versers that are quite prosaic. It almost reads as prose, but they tend to make the observation/realization the heart of the poem, a sharp and sudden understanding that is conveyed to the reader and then the reader shares in that "poetic' vision.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:37:00 AM

I'll check back later, Brian. I've rambled enough.. lol... Cheers! Hope others stop by!!

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:36:00 AM

In order for a piece to be read aloud in the exact same way as the poet intended it to be read silently to self, the poet would need to end each line with punctuation (pause or full stop.) There would be no break, for example, between a noun and verb, to pull those apart, surprise the reader with where you are talking them, a swerve that they did not expect.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:33:00 AM

oops.. please reverse the last two replies..

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:32:00 AM

They don't pause where they have put the break as the line is enjambed. In reading that aloud, they have lost that mind-pause that let the reader rest there, RIGHT there, for just a second. That is poetry, too That play with the speed of reading. But it sounds forced and artificial when read aloud.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:32:00 AM

Lastly, sometimes a reading can disrupt the intentional use of space, line/stanza breaks and the employment of homophones that free versers put into their work.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:26:00 AM

The funny thing, Brian, is that four years ago I fought tooth and nail with some poet (I can't even remember which poet it was!) who said ambiguity is needed in a poem to be considered a poem. Now, I am wearing his shoes. And it's truly funny. It's all about developing as a poet... the steps we take.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:24:00 AM

Without the exact language or a slight degree of mystery... it is prose. Few will agree with what I've just said. :D I'm okay with that.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:24:00 AM

I look back at some of my earliest free verse and see it as prose. For me, unless the poem has layers, ambiguity and/or word play, uncommon word pairings (even just one will do) then it is not a poem, even if it has line breaks, even if it has meter, even if it rhymes.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:20:00 AM

I like to read other poets who are trying something different. But I can not get into poetry that is ONLY punctuation. Seriously. Some poets are writing with brackets. ONLY brackets. I am broadminded, but even I have my limits of what art can/should be!

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:18:00 AM

I've toyed with adding space between words. It does work in some of my pieces. (One about field notes, like birdwatching where I'm trying to capture random thoughts, quick notations .. but I rarely use space between individual words.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:16:00 AM

I've 'tried on' losing all punctuation, and it feels so uncomfortable to me that I doubt I would use that technique often. I love the weight of punctuation. The emdash is like a pointing finger to me. It can be a road sign or a long tunnel, connecting thoughts. Hyphens are my thing. Love love love them! ellipses I like, but I only overuse them when I talk with friends. Not in poems.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:13:00 AM

I rarely end a line preposition... but have to strengthen the line below it. But I do attempt to end a line with something strong (a juicy noun, a meaty verb, even an unusual adjective.) I do use space, too.

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 8:09:00 AM

I absolutely am driven by language. Connotation and word play haunt me. However, I'm often surprised when I look down at what I've written and note that I've incorporated assonance or internal rhyme. Line breaks can take me weeks to get right. Each break can strengthen or weaken the poem. A perfect break can add three different meanings to a poem and cause of wonderful intersection of ideas!

Charlotte
Puddifoot

Date: 4/24/2017 7:51:00 AM

i've never really thought much about it, brian, which is a bit odd seeing as i am primarily a free verser! i don't know that i follow any particular rules or technique, i just use certain devices and write what i would like to read myself; i'm quite an intuitive writer and i write what feels right...interesting blog

Cyndi Macmillan
Date: 4/24/2017 7:58:00 AM

You do have a style, luv. You like degrees of ambiguity, but never intentionally obscure your intentions. You love mouth music, but your intuition guides you on what may have been too much.

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WHAT IS YOUR FORM OF FREE VERSE?inc update A,B,C,D - Brian Strand's Blog

WHAT IS YOUR FORM OF FREE VERSE?inc update A,B,C,D

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