R and M or FV? Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

There is quite a debate for the poets in us, as to whether Rhythm and Meter or Free Verse is more popular at competition sites.

Here is your opportunity to tell us your thoughts.

Which do you prefer and why?

~Cleo  :read:

[Guest_Don_*]

Good day everyone,

I come before you to talk of nebula and what poetry is all about.  Ultimately I wish for a discussion of 13th U.S. poet laureate, Ted Kooser and specifically hope to garner opinions on his free verse, Selecting A Reader .

Poetry to me is like an ocean, but to set limits let us gather around a pool of Anglicized rhyme & meter and free verse.  I feel that neither belong in a shallow or deep end.  They are themselves the drops of fluid within which we wish to swim.  The debate between the two may never end.  Nor will this short dip be definitive.

Personally, I prefer r&m simply because it received more attention, skill, and effort.  As Merlin said, we are drawn to what we like and tend to ignore the rest.  Per Merlin's reference to song lyrics, "Do what you do, do well," is paraphrased, "I don't do fv as well."

My biased reasons are similar to Taita's favoritism for r&m.  For this excuse I agree with Merlin that the majority of fv is not up to snuff.

To test the water, I put my toe in "What Makes Good Poetry" by RGarfield @ All in a pen, which is at http://p198.ezboard.com/fallinapenfrm51.sh...icID=3069.topic and previously suggested by Merlin.

RGarfield simplifies with three critereon of a good poem:
1. Message
2. Image
3. Rhythm

I like his belief that a good poem has absolute features rather than based upon personal likes and dislikes.  

By example he demonstrated how line length controls rhythm.  As I understand it, from other sources, line length is a key modifier of free verse.

From henceforth I wish to learn to better understand and appreciate free verse.

With a magic eye-dropper I extract from the pool two representative poems in free verse at Plagiarist.com Archive:
Mirror by Sylvia Plath
http://plagiarist.com/poetry/1414/
Selecting A Reader by Ted Kooser
http://plagiarist.com/poetry/4310/

Mr. Kooser's is flat and nearly pure prose to my read.  This is a poet reported to rewrites each 40 to 50 times and produce about 10 good poems annually.  As a poet laureate, he must know what is required and my appreciation is too crude to count.

On the otherhand, "Mirror" better achieved RGarfield's criterion for "good poem" for me.

Did I determined simply what I like and dislike, or did
RGarfield's absolute criterion prevail?

Mayday, mayday, mayday!

Don