Free-Verse Poetry Experiment

     One of the things the teacher for Creative Writing has really stressed, besides the process of creating poetry and short stories, is getting outside your comfort zone and climbing along limbs you wouldn't normally try testing. I really don't much like free-verse poetry, because I don't understand it most of the time. And it doesn't have a set rhythm or tell a story or anything. It's just atmospheric. So I experimented with a type of anagram, rearranging the letters of "ROGERS STATE HILLCATS" into as many words as I could think of, and then using as many of those words as possible in a long string that still makes sense. What came out of this was a one-sided conversation at dinnertime by a nine-year-old narrator. The teacher didn't quite understand it.

"What’s for dinner, Mom? …TATERS and SHALLOTS?

THAT”S swell….(I STILL HATE TO REHEAT THOSE STALE SLICES…)

…What did you say you and Mrs. Wilson had a CHAT about?

…Right, THE GHOST HOG doesn’t wear collar TAGS….HE shouldn’t, no…

(THIS IS what happens when your mom’s a writer.)

Yes, Jenny should be AGHAST THAT THE HOG STOLE THE SCALES!

…Hmm, good question. No, CLASSES are going fine enough.

How about the radio show’s LISTENERS change the GEARS of the mower?

The mower’s SLICER could TEAR into the SHALE, cause a landslide and that

Could be the climax? (…) No problem!

Uh…Mom? Aren’t you going to finish – never mind.

Oh, well. Not everyone is a lucky enough to have your mom be a writer."