Free Verse Discovery

I learned about free verse about the time I went from a one piece bathing suit to a bikini. Both were awkward to adjust to. 

In a place, below the lawn, the beach slopes into the water leaving the sand up, exposed more to the sun. A thin crust forms on the top, similar to snow with an icy crust, only it was hot summer sand. Without a towel, in the days of suntanning, my bestie and I sunned on the sand listening to the sound of the Atlantic Ocean waves against the New Jersey shore at high tide. I remember staring at the tiny grains of eroded rocks as I rested my chin on my arms, toes dug into the roughish quartz. 

The moment imprinted on my memory much the same way discovering free verse did.  In both, there was a world open to me that I knew little about.

At different stages of our lives, there are epiphanies that we remember vividly, especially the core of the emotion. I wanted to be a poet and writer when I was four years, not even knowing the alphabet. 

Free verse poetry was unexpected. The concept of freedom in words tumbled into my brain like pick up sticks.