---
title: On formal poetry
genre: verse

project:
    title: Elegies for alternate selves
    css: elegies
    order: 12
    prev:
    - title: Feeding the raven
      link: feedingtheraven
    next:
    - title: I am
      link: i-am
...

I think that I could write formal poems \
exclusively, or at least inclusive \
with all the other stuff I write \
I guess.  Of course, I've already written \
a few, this one included, though "formal" \
is maybe a stretch.  Is blank verse a form?  \
What is form anyway?  I picture old \
women counting [stitches on their knitting][knitting], \
keeping iambs next to iambs in lines \
as straight and sure as arrows.  But my sock \
is lumpy, poorly made: it's beginning \
to unravel.  Stresses don't line up.  Syl- \
lables forced to fit like [McNugget][] molds.  \
That cliché on the arrow?  I'm aware.  \
My prepositions too---God, where's it stop?  \
The answer: never.  I will never stop \
writing poems, or hating what I write.

[knitting]: roughgloves.html
[McNugget]: ronaldmcdonald.html