If there's something I've known for quite some time in my life, it's poetry. It's been the art that has filled the time between chores, homework, work, content creation and music. Going through its forms, analyzing how it turns and twists content, learning how to read between verses and enjoying the pace and music of the language employed is pure bliss.
However, even when I know the knicks and knacks of its rhythm and cadence, I've never been able to write rhymed poetry. Yes, I'm a free-verse poet. And it isn't by choice.
There's something wonderful about rhyme in the language and how it gives us the pacing for poems. Neither in English or Spanish this comes easy for me. I know how to read it. I was taught. And I had to go through some stages in high school and college to understand how the forms of language, rhythm and rhyme make poetry what it. But even when I know about it, it seems the latter element is a mystery to me.
I think it has to do with the fact that rhyme isn't what makes out poetry. Once, I used to think it was an element used as mnemotechny. That means it makes it easier for our brains to remember these kinds of patterns when there's a fixed pattern in the way verses go in pairs or groups along the last feet (syllable in Spanish) of each verse.
Nevertheless, as it doesn't come easy to my brain to think this way, I haven't been able to make even the simplest of rhymes in my life. And when I have tried, they suck. Because good rhymes aren't a piece of cake.
Trying to delve further into why I can't do this even when I put my effort into the act, my thoughts go to another fact. Since there's a certain musicality to the language employed in rhymed poetry and I'm a lousy singer. It seems fitting to get the idea that this two deficiencies are tied for some reason. Then, I know about people with no musical skills whatsoever that are amazing poets. And in both styles.
And yes, that makes me green with envy... but it makes me feel dumb.
Maybe I'm missing something about reading rhymed poetry and has spent too much time reading free verse. At least, that's my conclusion. Maybe that way I'll be able to grasp it better. And if it doesn't work, well, I would've tried to understand why rhyme is so difficult to me.
I've been to poetry workshops, but maybe there should be one just about rhyme and its mechanisms. Perhaps I can make a suggestion about it and it will happen.
Wish me luck.
- Photos 📷: taken by me (Redmi Note 8)
- Editing 🎬: by me, made with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
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