In chapter 5 of The Portable Poetry Workshop, Myers discusses free verse. Occasionally, "free verse" seems to be a synonym for "laziness," as it is easy to go off on a rant, neglecting poetic tools. The chapter which we just read, however, gives the reader so many ways to improve their poem that they have no excuse to be lazy. In your poems, do you choose to employ these concepts when first writing the piece, or do you add them later? Also -- what were all of your thoughts on implication? We(?) found it particularly interesting in that it can add an unusually subtle dimension to a poem, but does it add anything else? Can it influence a reader's perspective on the narrator? Can it make an ordinary scene seem extraordinary?
Oliver claims that free verse is more accessible because it does not follow a strict meter. Do you find free verse to be more or less accessible than metered poetry? What about in terms of the potential laziness referred to in the above paragraph? Oliver references speech being lyrical and free verse poetry using many of the same techniques. What do you think effective public speakers have in common with good poets (particularly spoken word or slam poets)? On page 116 of A Poetry Handbook, the reader is told that poetry improves significantly when written in solitude. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think it could potentially add something to the poem if it is written with constant interruptions? Have you experimented with this on your own, and if so, what did you learn about your writing style and it's dependency on the presence of others?
On a side note, if you had to pick one, would you say that diction, tone, voice or rhythm were most important to a poem's strength?
