When it comes to the poetry I write, I am a slave to my form. It's all rhyme and rhythm, and I feel in a way that the writing should be measured by the meaning one can drive into a skeleton of a poem. This isn't to say that I have a form in mind when I start writing, but as I write I find it; for instance a rhyme scheme and number of syllables per line. Even my streams-of-consciousness and free-verse-type-poems follow this pattern, and the only irregular poems I've written are ones that I really enjoy but were written very angrily and not easily recreated.
This being said, I am starting to think that my poems are too similar to one another, at least in form if not in topic, and although I like them I would like to improve. So could improvement happen by trying to remove or pay less attention to some of the form? I guess we will see.
I think form is important and can be what makes you stand out from others. Improvement should come from working outside of your box and discovering new challenges. But in the end, I believe you'll fall back into what feels right.
ReplyDeleteyou inspire me!