In the introduction to
Best Canadian Poetry 2019, the guest editor says, in part
Quote:
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a reduced emphasis on style (or, alternately, an intentional choice to mute stylistic elements—ear-catching word choices, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, etc.—in order to direct all attention to the content at hand). The poems published today say far more, but often say it very plainly. You know those people who get all clenched-up, ranting that “free verse is just prose with line breaks”? If they had joined me in my reading for this anthology, they would have succumbed to apoplexy long before the year was out.
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The attached images show what he means. To me, pages like this look like prose. They often don't even have the "line breaks" mentioned in the above quote.
I have no issue with free verse, and don't mind trying this sort of poetry, but I'm assuming it is possible to have contentful poetry that still LOOKS like poetry? The attached screenshots are at the "extremely prosaic" end of the formatting spectrum in the book so far, nevertheless many do look a lot more like prose than verse.
Since I only read on electronic devices, I'm not looking for poetry at the extreme visual art end of the spectrum either, but would be interested in recommendations of accessible poets who pack meaning into a more traditional verse form - and that includes free verse.