"North or Be Eaten" Book Review

It's coming!

Poetry : )

In my English Cornerstone class, we are studying different kinds of poetry and how they interact with one another. I've really enjoyed studying up more on what open poetry is versus closed poetry. A quick tutorial to the two kinds of poetry would be that Open Form has not set rules to rhyme, rhythme or stanza rules...etc. Sounds easy, right? It's actually really hard because Open Form is all about conveying a message in how you present the information, whether it be by word choices, line spacing, punctuation (or lack thereof) or even the title of the work. It's very much of a thought process in open form poetry. Closed Form is based on rules that have been around for awhile. Such a couplets, two rhyming lines (aa) or Quatrains in different rhyming sets (abab, abac, aabb). There is not only the aspect of rhyming that must make sense in closed form but it also must have a steady beat and rhythm. Closed form poetry gives a beat to poems that can't be found in other forms of poetry, which is very difficult to master.

How is that for a quick poem lesson?

Thus, in the attempt of learning to understand open form versus closed form...I have attempted to write two poem! One poem is about Open Form Poetry and the other poem is about Closed Form Poetry. Perhaps after my tutorial you can figure out which is which?

Don't expect poetry of genuis on my part, expect ingenuity in all of its immature forms...

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Open –close,
close – Open.
The door keeps swinging back and forth, back and forth
and I wonder why the door can’t just stay Open.
Please say you're Open for business.
I don’t like closed doors or closed vents or "closed for construction" signs or closed-toe-shoes or closed people.
Especially closed people.
But closed poetry?
… don’t even get me started to Open up on that subject…

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Follow me here and watch your young steps,
This is to guide you to not be inept.
Closer and closer to closing the door,
I have a secret you can not ignore.
The door is, yes, closed, “You’re mine,” I say,
“Be wary the open, it changes your way.
For closed doors remind me of that secret garden
Where children do play and nothing does harden.
Dear one, close the door and please watch your form
For nothing is worse than a verse badly born.