Searching for the Form

I haven't posted for a while now. This is mostly due to laziness and just plain fear of posting "cliche" things, which isn't really a fear of being cliche, but a pride that is only satisfied with nothing less than pure novelty and perfection. That may seem like an exaggeration, but considering the fact that I am a descendent of Adam, it only makes sense that I am inclined to "cover up" what I see is flawed in me. However, there's another reason.

Because this blog has been mostly a place where I've posted poems, I thought that I should only post again once I have a poem worthy of being posted. And now that I'm in English 131 (Intro to Poetry), I have realized how little effort and care I've put into my poems. This class has showed me that my form and structure fluctuates like crazy, or is just nonexistent. And my open form (free verse) poems? I thought they didn't have to abide by any rules at all! But the reality is, everything abides by rules; there's really no such thing as "free" verse. For in the very attempt to escape a traditional form, a writer creates a new form... I won't get into that now, but suffice it to say that all good poetry comes from fine craft and meticulous thought. With that in view, you must understand that I have had a very critical eye on all of my poems, there's always something to change which is both bad and good. Bad, because I will take longer in the writing process. Good, because I will be posting more polished and refined poems, that will hopefully not have distracting offbeat rhythms or wretched grammatical flaws.

So now, on to my new(ish) poem that I wrote reflecting on some of the things mentioned above. It's not perfect, but it's a kind of preliminary to some others I have in store for the future. They, at this time, are in the fiery furnaces of revision and critique. The refining is tough work, and hopefully, by God's gift-nourishing grace, I will learn to be a master refiner.

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Searching for the Form

I seek to be free, yet still I compromise;
thinking to see, my words are lost in skies
and so comes the wait to learn to be contained--
forms and structures molding what's untamed;
thus I learn to choose from chaos, molten ooze
the precious metals whose worth's refined in form--
authentic in fruit, though by centuries worn.