Why write free verse?

why write free verse?
isn’t it a waste of time?

because I haven’t yet found any readers of free verse—

only poets who agree to read others’
poetry for inspiration.

I write free verse
to return to beginnings.

language must have begun as free verse.

who would have known of consistency in gender and number?
or the proper layout of disposition?

the first language
did not consult Chomsky’s scholarship.
it must have been dissociated
fumbling
tentative
exemplary

and they went on that way for years
till someone in a sun-drenched clearing
or during the pause of twilight
assembled the imperative statement—let’s invent civilization.

so then they began to enunciate syllables
punch out pictographs
record confabulations of heroism
expel people with unacceptable accents
announce professional academies

and they relegated sincerity to the shadows
so that it can poke its head out only

in the conditional safety
of free verse.

Andy Oram
September 8, 2019

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