Above the quiet dock in mid night,
Tangled in the tall mast’s corded height,
Hangs the moon. What seemed so far away
Is but a child’s balloon, forgotten after play.

title shortened for space

A pretty straight-forward question for those who write free verse / non-met. I'm interested to know what your process is from start to completion of your poems, how do you construct and complete your poetry?

I've been writing non-met for quite a while and am interested to hear how closely my approach matches that of others.

The rhythm being at the phrase level I'll often start off with a rhythmically awkward and/or small piece, and gradually shape words and phrases (grow) the poem until it is rhythmically satisfying and has no obvious problems. I'll often go through many, many iterations where I re-write the poem.

How does one live on?

Seconds, minutes, years

And you, simply gone

Do you know of my fears?

Whiling days away in tears.

I'm tired

Note: sprezzatura is an Italian word referring to an apparently effortless grace; the art of making something difficult look easy; or maintaining a nonchalant demeanor while performing a challenging task.

In love with this line: "I drank an entire language and flung tar at whatever moved"!!!!!!!!

Bob Hicok is a two-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and recipient of the Bobbitt Prize from the Library of Congress, he’s also been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and eight Pushcart Prizes, and his poems have been selected for inclusion in nine volumes of The Best American Poetry. This is one of four new poems in Discordia Review / Fellow Travellers.

I've always loved his writing; it reminds me of someone like Ron Padgett, or John Ashbery in a folksy mood. I respect too that despite how articulate and intellectual he comes across in interviews, he became a poet and published very successfully before ever having taken any kind of university degree. Cool guy!

This is the preface to Blake's long poem 'Milton: A Poem in Two Books', not to be confused with Blake's much longer poem 'Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion'. It most likely hints at the apocryphal story of Jesus accompanied Joseph of Arimathea visiting England before his years of public ministry. Blake has fascinated me for a long time, and this is one of the little gems I recently found.

This is from Gafor's book of Rumi poems entitled: GOLD. She is reading Oct. 29 at the Sheen Center in nyc with Naomi Shihab Nye and several musicians if you are near NYC.

I don't know if this is the correct page to post this on, but can anyone tell me how one is supposed to enjoy poetry. I have read some poems by Keats, Byron, Yeats, etcetera, and feel like I didn't "get it"(If that is the correct term in this case).

I consider myself a fast reader, and I have tried reading poetry before and it feels that the words just fly by without me understanding the point of what I just read. Related to that, from what I researched from this topic before people mentioned that poetry is meant to be "felt", but from the poetry that I have read I feel nothing.

If it matters, I have enjoyed more longer or narrative poems like "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and the works of Homer.

I appreciate any response.