Fun and Fancy Free Verse or Exploring My Softer Side

Aha, you say, a free verse poem is not a rarity like the other poems you’ve presented, Nicki. Yes, you are right, but for the beginner poet, free verse can be the easiest form to write.

There is no rhyme scheme, no meter, no sense of a rigid mold into which you must cram your work of art.

The popular practice of free verse poems date back to 19^th Europe, in

particular, France. Free verse is a very organic poem based on natural breaks in speech, the intensity of your mood, or just how you want the words to appear on the page.

This form can start out as an exercise in prose that is broken up to create poetic lines and phrasing. Free verse, for me, is like writing in a diary. A place to cleanse my soul…or whatever. To read an excellent example of free verse poems, check out Hilda Doolittle, Allen Ginsberg, John Ashberry, Sylvia Plath, and Frank O'Hara, just to name a few. There are many more poets worthy of mention, but you'd be here all day. Not that I mind.

While I am a dark poet, I do have a romantic, sensitive side. Here is a poem I wrote in college, exploring that cautious adventure of falling in love.

Secret Serenade

They breathed softly in the words you nervously stuttered

   In the longing glance that your eye shyly gave

   In the touch that made m tremble

The whispers of your buried secrets

Singing the lyric that your heart once guarded

The tender song that you wished to keep still

Melodies of sun-soaked laughter transition

Into moon-laced walks of harmony

A sweet chorus that danced freely through your kiss.

Embedded in silken ruby leaves

Lay a symphony of secrets

Revealing that you are  


 falling


                                                    falling


                                                                                                     falling 
    
       deep within your heart’s embrace
       deeper inside the music of your soul
       deeply in love

And since I can't keep well enough alone, here a bonus poem for your reading pleasure.

Admirer

would you believe me if the words never came?
if they trembled on my slippery tongue
hoping that the thread of my breath
would pass them
and leave them untouched

naked
                           and
                                             petrified

of the abduction: a painful seizure
that would transport to your ear
the components of unrequited adoration.