The following part of this poem is in haiku format.
One, two, three, four, five,
the numbers counting on my
fingers as I write.
I thought of a great
line, but no, I can't use it,
because of the style.
My thoughts, which once roamed
now are trapped in a stern,
merciless prison.
Wow, that line seems good!
Oops, too many syllables.
Think of something else.
I have had to write
many poems with life
and deeper meaning.
But a limiting
with a fixed meter
is one that I hate.
The following part of this poem is in a free-verse style. (With some others mixed in)
When I have to write
a fixed verse poem
my mind goes wild
as I realize that I stuck.
My thinking is limited
I'm not allowed to show
the qualities which make me an
above average writer.
I can't show
my finesse
my pacing
my use of threes
with a fixed meter.
When the end
of every line
is tainted with a rhyme
my thoughts, trapped in a box, my ideas not free, it's taking a long time
I'll skip this anytime!*
When I have to write
a fixed verse poem
I see it as an unfair punishment.
Like forcing a painter to act on stage,
forcing the actor to paint,
forcing the artist to confine the art.
As I wrote the haiku section of this poem
my mind suddenly collapsed
as my ideas shrank
into a mess
of words.
I'm freed
when I left
I am freed far, far
my mind suddenly opened on
As I wrote the freed section of this poem**
Fixed poems
are just that
they root you to one place
root you to one mode of thinking
and root you to your meter.
Fixed poems
are fixed
but on the contrary
I never am.
(AND NO ONE EVER IS)
Fixed Poems
-Akilan Babu
P.S:
*ABBBB rhyme scheme
**Funnel - Each line as about as many characters as the corresponding line. So each word is roughly the same length (+- 2 characters). I tried to make it exact, so that each word length is exactly the same length as the corresponding one, but that was much too hard for a mediocre writer like me.
Each line has words that are about the same length as the corresponding one, so the shape is like a funnel. "into a mess" is a 4-1-4 phrase, with 4 letters in the first word, one letter in the next, and 4 letters in the final word. "when I left" is the corresponding phrase, and is also 4-1-4. There are some exceptions, such as "as my ideas shrank" and "I am freed far, far" as the first phrase is 2-2-5-6 and the corresponding one is 1-2-3-3-3. The "far, far" part corresponds with the "shrank" because they both have 6 letters.
A funnel also has an entrance and an exit. Note how the first two and the last two lines were repeated, but different.
This was an interesting experiment, and it took the longest time to write this section of the poem! Funnels do look extraordinarily cool once they are finished...
The Aimless Blog 