"Free Verse" by Hal O'Leary

FREE VERSE

By Hal O'Leary

Let not there be a doubt, I am averse

To much of what they choose to call free verse.

For me, it has become the devil's curse,

And if you will excuse my being terse,

It's naught but prose.

In dictionaries, meter is most used

Along with rhyme, (the terms are often fused)

To tell us verse should never be confused

Or ever used with free.  It’s not excused.

Give us repose.

If we are free to do most anything,

And all our words we do not choose but fling,

Then lyricism loses all its ring,

And though we write, we do no longer sing.

Thus, I propose.

A discipline that should define all art

Is lost, alas, and structure falls apart,

Which lowers any hope we might impart,

Ethereal emissions from the heart.

One must suppose.

Although it's true we cannot close the door

On charges that we favor days of yore,

It's time, and I will claim it with a roar,

Free verse?  An oxymoron, nothing more.

With that I close.

Hal O'Leary is a 92 year old veteran of WWII who, having spent his life in theatre. He lives by a quote from his son’s play, Wine to Blood, “I don’t know if there is a Utopia, but I am certain that we must act as though there can be.” He believes that it is only through the arts that we are afforded an occasional glimpse into the otherwise incomprehensible.  Having been a Pushcart nominee for non-fiction and as the author of two books of poetry, Hal is the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from West Liberty University, the same institution from which he became a college dropout some 60 years earlier.

Hal's Books

For What They're Worth

When And Where

The following is his epitaph composed at age 20.

With open mouth and open mind,
I came into the world to find
Life's riddle in one word defined,
BELIEVE!

And now, that Life is left behind,
And though I know they meant be kind,
With open mouth and open mind,

I LEAVE.