**Note: This is a "guest blogger" post from the amazing, talented, and thought-provoking Eric "Bubba" Alder of Bubba's Place, a writer of poetry and prose, thinker, and all around interesting person. If you're interested in guest blogging here, send me an e-mail :-) <3 KL*
Free-Form or Pre-Formed?
Free-Form or Pre-Formed?
When it comes to writing poetry, I’m on the fence when it comes to using forms.
In general, I like to let my ideas flow freely. I let the ideas and words dictate whether or not there will be an inherent form to the piece I’m writing. And often my writing just falls into place in my head, so whatever arrangement it takes on is fine by me. (That’s probably why I write so much prose)
But sometimes my ideas are just a vague notion, or even a single phrase that pops into my head, and the rest of it remains buried just beyond my reach. That’s when forms can come in handy. Needing to ‘fill in the blanks’ of a poetry form requires me to stretch my mind a little, to dig up more words or phrases in order to finish things.
But is either method superior to the other? There are some bloggers who are fanatical about forms, trying as many as possible. There are even folks who carve their words into shape-poems that create a visual picture. Others get really slick and create new forms of their own. On the flip side, I’ve seen people who write nothing but prose, eschewing any ‘form’ as restrictive and limiting.
What do you think? How do you prefer to write your poetry?
