Poem: Against the strict rules
By: Sravani Singampalli
Many feel that the traditional forms
Of poetry are the best,
A haiku must always follow
A 5-7-5 syllable pattern
And a poem must follow
The specific meters.
If you force a child
To follow your notions
He will only end up
Being a follower
He will never think
Out of the box
And this will kill his creativity.
A poem is also a growing child
Leave it free
Leave it to explore places
You’ve never been to.
With strict rules
A poem will lose its
Way to home.
I love writing poetry with rules because I love seeing how far I can bend or break them. I certainly tip my hat to the greats who I grew up idolising and I have a personal bias with most free verse and many other forms/movements of poetry. But, at the end of the day, poetry is art. And art creates an emotion. As long as it does that to one person, I say it’s worth it.