Thoughts on Free Verse cont'd

Note: I don't write long blog posts because ... oh look at the cat ... I don't read long blog posts...   has it stopped snowing? ... because I have a touch of A.D.D. ... I think I'll make pancakes for breakfast.

Also, when I talk poetry I tend to talk about it in very simple layman's terms. I mean I CAN get into all the high falutin' artsy fartsy stuff, after all I'm a dagnab card carrying English major, but usually I just keep it well you know ... down to earth and slightly bizarre.

For me, it takes a LOT longer to write free verse than prose. It's not about the words you put in. It's about the words you leave out. Free verse is raw, concentrated, several pages contained in one verse of a hundred words or so. As in picture books, every word in a verse novel counts. Every word has to carry a lot of weight. Think of verse as sun-dried tomatoes, all that flavor, all that tangy bite shriveled down into something tiny that comes to life in your brain, the way the flavor of the tomato comes alive in your mouth.

More tomorrow. :)