Free Verse

Dana Gioia writes: "Like subsidised farming that grows food that no one wants, a poetry industry has been created to serve the interests of the producers not the consumers." He goes on: "To regain poetry's readership one must begin by meeting William Carlos Williams' challenge to find 'what concerns many men not simply what concerns poets'."

I have just come across a short poem by William Carlos Williams; I'm not sure if this is his attempt to concern many men:

"I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold."

Here's one to Babe (Oliver Hardy) who was born on 18 January 1892.

"Fat as a porker
But delicately footed
Babe drew you like a magician
To his style of comedy."