Seduce me

I am certainly not the one to make you love forms, but I'll say this -- if you are serious about improving, then you have no choice.

It is not reasonable to write poetry without all of the tools. Forms are one of the tools you need in your arsenal. Every idea is not suited to every form. Freeverse is one form. What of blankverse? What of Chokah? What of Tanka? What of the french forms, the italian forms, the english forms? Each of these offers an effect that can multiply the effect of your words upon your audience.

Additionally, when one is writing freeverse, if one understands how the forms work, and what they do, one can use components of them, and improve one's freeverse poetry.

I am generally offended by phrases like, "Nice flow" as often applied by amateur poets, and I think it's directly due to my immediate sense of their lack of knowledge of poetic tools.

When Leanne reads my freeverse, she will not usually directly point at meter, but she will note lines that 'do not work' and often it is due to the metrics of it. The types of sensibilitise her understanding of all the poetic tools brings to her criticism, i think is what makes it so incredibly clear and powerful.

If you care about your poetry, then you really have no choice but to practice different forms with some regularity. To do otherwise is a bit of a travesty I think.

• stephan