Perhaps one day the difficult bits will fall into place and the finished poem will be born. Some poems seem to need a regular beat, with the scansion worked out so that it falls nicely with the shape of the words. These poems need to rhyme too, I find. Other poems are less regular - the rhyme comes in places other than the last word of a line, the rhythm is more erratic. Then there are the poems that neither rhyme nor scan, but have their own internal logic.
Words still have to be juxtaposed carefully to create the right imagery and feel.
Literary people have all sorts of important-sounding words to describe different poetic forms and techniques. That's not the sort of dialogue I want to have with you. Let's just write. Some time I'll write about the genesis and birth pangs of a poem on another page. 1999 Page created on 3rd November 1999 This page was last updated on 25 November 1999 .