I tend to harp on meter a lot because it’s one of the most common reasons for editors to reject a poem. Writers think it’s enough to for a poem to rhyme but don’t understand the nature and construction of meter. But there is another problem that is probably just as widespread and can affect even writers with a totally perfect ear for meter.

I’m talking about forcing the rhyme. Sometimes a poem will be about a specific subject but the writer will find herself stuck. She needs a line to rhyme with a different line. After all rhyme scheme is important. So, she’ll make a slight detour in subject so that she can make the rhyme – then she’ll return to the first subject:

Spring wears a bright weskit of green
While birdies all stand ‘round and preen
With buttons of white
A dazzling sight
The choicest of seasons I’ve seen.

Okay…why are there birds in a poem that’s basically a simile about how the bright spring grass and white spring flowers are compared to stylish clothes? Sure, there are birds in spring. And preening is kind of related to sartorial splendor, but let’s be honest – the birds snuck in to make a line that rhymes with green. I know it. You know it. The editor knows it. The poem is not likely to sell, even overlooking the lame last line.

Once you’ve chosen what your poem will be about, you must be true to that. I’ve even seen poetry that contradicts itself in order to make the rhyme work, or nonfiction poetry that includes inaccuracies to make the rhyme work. You cannot wander off the topic in order to get your lines to work. This means sometimes you have to go back and scrap the first line if you cannot get second line to work. I know it. You know it. The editor knows it. It needs fixing.

My hair is short
My nose is small
I’ve barely any legs at all.

I want to stretch
I need to grow
I like to play out in the snow.

Okay, yes, snow rhymes with grow. That’s nice. And grow does fit the theme of the poem but snow does not. But, but, but…maybe the snow is too deep for such a short kid to play in! Then it works, right? Right? But the poem doesn’t say that. And the reference to snow is just in there to rhyme with grow.

Another problem closely related to this is the twisted line. With a twisted line, we write in a way that a child would never ever ever say JUST so the correct word ends the line. Now sometimes a slightly odd construction may happen correctly in a poem where you want a very special kind of voice…but what about a poem where the voice sounds like a child except in that one twisted line?

I watch a bird up in the sky
I long to spread my wings and fly
“Why can’t I come with you?” says I.
The bird won’t stop to tell me why.

“Says I?” Can you imagine anyone actually talking that way? But it’s poetry…poetic license, you cry. And rejections, terrible rejections, says I. Editors can sometimes overlook a bit of a twist in a really great poem, but they also can reject for it. And certainly twisting just to make a rhyme requires straining the language not for the good of the poem, but to make life easier for the poet.

Life doesn’t actually get to be easy for the poet. Poetry is hard. It is intense writing. It is the writing of those with total control of the language. Much like picture books, it’s not easy just because it’s short. Any writing form that requires total control is never easy…and poetry demands that of you.

Poetry, more than any other form of writing, is as much about rewriting as writing. The search for that balance of theme, content, meter and rhyme is tough. But if you cheat…if you find something that sort of works and mail the poem out because “it’s close enough” then you’re going to see more rejections, first. And you’re disrespecting the form, the reader, and your own self as a writer. If you want to write poetry – don’t move along to the next poem too soon. Spend a while. Find the right line, not just one that fits. If you can cram a puzzle piece in a hole but it doesn’t fit the picture – are you really gaining any ground on completing the puzzle?

Find the piece that fits and completes the puzzle. Then you’ll have a treasure.