1. Poetry
A Lesson on Form

9. Consider this…. -- ---- ------------------ ----------- ----- -----

10. And this….

11. Luna
You
were my
first dandelion
wish, my cotton
candy kiss, and sweet
lullaby. With you nested
in the palm of my hand,
we became one with the night,
ruling over the stars in the sky.
You have been my guiding light
through sleepless nights, my
muse, and friend, always
lending a listening ear, and
offering your soft, glowing
light to ease my fears.
You are my warm,
goodnight moon,
Luna.
Marie Summers

12. Street Music by Arnold Adoff
T h i s c i t y:
t h e
a l w a y s
n o i s e
g r i n d i n g
up from the
s u b w a y s
u n d e r
g r o u n d:
slamming from bus tires
and taxi horns and engines
of cars and trucks in all
v o c a b u l a r i e s of
clas
flash
screeching
hot metal l a n g u a g e
c o m b i n a t i o n s:
as p l a n e s
o v e r h e a d
r o a r an
o r c h e s t r a
of rolling drums
and battle blasts
assaulting
my ears
w i t h
n o i s e of
t h i s c i t y:
street music.

13. Mother to Son – Langston Hughes Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor -- Bare. But all the time I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners, And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light. So boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down on the steps 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. Don't you fall now -- For I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin', And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

14. A poem by e.e. Cummings….
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

15. TO BE
NOBODY
BUT
YOURSELF IN A
WORLD
WHICH IS
DOING
ITS
BEST
NIGHT
AND
DAY
MAKE
YOU
EVERYBODY
ELSE -
MEANS
FIGHT
THE
HARDEST
BATTLE
ANY
HUMAN
BEING
CAN
NEVER
STOP
FIGHTING

16. Form Notes
Consider the power of this next arrangement, where death is emphasized by its placement on its own line: death has not touched me yet The end word of a line is always emphasized by the fact that the reader holds it in his mind until his eyes scan back to the beginning of the next line. Short lines provide a sense of anxiety, as do line breaks that provide a surprise twist: death has not touched me yet. By placing "yet" on its own line, I've provided a surprise twist on the line above it, and leave the reader with a sense of the implied foreboding of when death will touch the speaker in the poem.

17. Choose the word you want to end your line on carefully
Choose the word you want to end your line on carefully. For instance, consider a few ways of breaking the following phrase, “death has not touched me yet”, which is from my poem "Elegy for Bridges"-- death has not touched me yet.

18. "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams: So much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.
This poem is full of enjambment if we change things with punctuation we discover that the impact of the poem changes. Consider if the poem had been written as follows: "So much depends upon a red wheelbarrow, glazed with rainwater, beside the white chickens."