Freedom in Verse

I write poems.Does that make me a poet?What if nobody reads them?

If you know anything about poetry, you’ll recognize the above as a haiku. The form is simple. Three lines: five syllables, then seven syllables, then five again. Those are the rules. Poetry has a lot of rules, and most of them are made to be broken. It’s what I like best about writing poetry: mastering the rules and then breaking them. I’ve been a prose writer most of my life and that too involves rules, but breaking them can be risky. That’s why late in life I’ve found a kind of freedom in verse.

My adventure in poetry began more than a year ago, after my latest novel was rejected, for two reasons. One, my first published novel did not earn...