Messed Up Doesn’t Rhyme with Best
Is poetry that’s free as free as all
That? Surely it’s the poet who is free
Or not. S/he makes the choice to make a sprawl
Of words (and punctuation?) dribblingly
Straight (straight?) along the right-hand margin, or
Elects to wander from that side to God
Knows where. Then reeling like a rummed-up wh re
The words or letters (only? (maybe?) odd
In some arrangement (disarranged?) dribble
Below, blotched out with spaces here and there
Without sound reason—barring to scribble
Away in freedom, shapeless as despair.
..This wouldn’t all be such a messy crime
….If s/he chose . . . freely . . . steady beat and rhyme.
Dear Mr. Whidden,
Thank you for sending this poem! It’s interesting in many ways. I get the sense that “S/he” is brilliant tongue in cheek, giving more choice than needed. Is the missing “o” in whore and misplaced parentheses also part of this motif?
It reminds me of this poem we recently published:
https://classicalpoets.org/2021/02/28/free-verse-recondite-done-right-by-tonia-kalouria/
Also, I recommend to you this contest: https://fofg.org/competitions/2021-poetry-competition/
Regards,
Evan Mantyk
I never think to look at comments here. Sorry.