Still Celebrating Poetry Month

When it comes to writing, I'm a pantser all the way. That is to say, I don't do a lot of planning ahead of time, I just sit down and start writing. But when it comes to poetry, I'm pretty much the opposite - I prefer the structure of forms.

As frustrating as it can be to work within a frame-work of syllable counts and rhymes, there's something comforting about it as well. I've explored over a hundred different poetry forms and while some of the poems produced weren't my best, it was still an interesting experience.

However, the one form I cannot seem to master is the Free Verse. This is the form that has no form - no syllable counts, no rhyme scheme . . . and it just feels wrong to me somehow. I have a confession to make. I just don't get free verse. I didn't understand it in high school, I don't understand it now. It just seems so . . . undisciplined!

That being said, I do try my hand at it from time to time. And one of those times presented itself when I had to create a poem for a young adult story I was working on. It's a romance between a football jock and a nerdy girl, and early in the story he went to one of her poetry readings. So naturally I had to create a poem for her to read, and here it is:


Judgement

You do not know me
and yet you judge me
you form your opinion
without knowing the facts.

I'm the woman in the corner
sipping her latte
wearing long sleeves
to hide her shattered dreams.

I'm the man whose hand trembles
ever so slightly
as he reaches for his coffee
wishing it was something else.

I'm the life of the party
everyone's darling
hiding the emptiness
behind a cheerful facade.

I'm the girl in the corner
alone with her book
the words her armour
keeping the world at bay.

I'm the fat girl in high school
I'm the boy with the acne
I'm the man with the ragged coat
I'm the woman with scars.

I'm the blind man with the tin cup
I'm the woman sleeping in the alley
I'm the kid on the skateboard
I'm man playing sax in the subway.

I speak and my words fly away
you listen, but you do not hear.
You do not know me
yet you judge me
still.