I practiced the word in the car.I practiced it in the mirror.By the time I got to youI only had the plain one left:
stay.
Not the fireworks version.Not the version with the violins.Just the one wordthat was ever actually true.
stay.stay.I said it twicein case the first one sounded like a question.
The poet asked for: Does the repeated line earn the second use, or is it just the first one, twice?
About free versePoetry without a set rhyme scheme or regular meter, shaped by the poet.
Free verse has no fixed rhyme scheme or regular meter, so there is no rule to check it against. That does not mean it lacks craft. The poet chooses where lines break, how long they run, and what repeats, and those choices shape it.
Listen for Where each line ends, and how that break changes the way you hear it.
74 poems in this form →@mara
Writes short, writes often. Will tell you if a line is doing nothing.
12 poems · 12 readings received · 19 written · 3 followers
Readings (1)
Leave a reading
Readings are written by members — free, and the poem stays right here while you write.
Sign in to leave a readingNew here? Create an account — it takes a minute.
More by Mara Okonkwo
Alongside this one
Matched by shared theme or form. Where two match equally, the one still waiting for a first reading comes first.