Françoise Hardy and ZaZ are songstresses belonging to two French generations but uf!! their songs are poetry in motion. Françoise Hardy's work is in fact poetry set to music as it can pretty much all be recited just as well as sung.

You're very welcome to read any or all of these (to start with) – awesome idea!! Looking forward to the results of this. Thanks. Weirdos Weirdos make the best of friends: They’re always up for fun– A child still dwells within their souls Beneath the moon and sun. Weirdos make the best of friends: They’re all they need to be– They’re round, they’re flat, they’re far from square, Except in honesty. Their heads may not be firmly straight, Their feet may not turn right. They’re wise– in cracks; they’re quick– in wit; They’re bright when given light. Yet Weirdos make the best of friends: They’re constantly on call– They care, they share, they but require Your friendship most of all. Music It’s music most that makes the world go round. No matter what, no matter where, it’s there Enchanting all with its melodic sound. The echoes of its voice each day resound With its unique and satisfying flair. It’s music most that makes the world go round. In ev’ry note is something so profound That elegantly whistles through the air, Enchanting all with its melodic sound. And as the people go to where they’re bound, It rids their minds of ev’ry sombre care. It’s music most that makes the world go round. The spectacle it brings is so renowned, The influence it leaves beyond compare, Enchanting all with its melodic sound. There’s nothing that within it can’t be found, There’s nothing that it wouldn’t want to share. It’s music most that makes the world go round, Enchanting all with its melodic sound. The Man and His Sitar Alone he sits upon a stone Beneath the morning star, And weaves into the languid world The strum of his sitar. In solemn silence, soothingly He plays his repertoire, Which flows as though to only be For him and his sitar. A simple silhouette he seems, Known neither near nor far, Without a home, without a name Except for his sitar. Yet in a blink he vanishes, As would a shooting star, And wafts into a memory– The man and his sitar. –EDP

The theme of this quote goes as far back as Roman times with the playwright Terence, who famously said: "there's nothing that has been said that hasn't been said before". So this advice def holds up. One can learn by "copying" but once they start "stealing", and by extension, adding their own spin on what the take, they end up finding their own voice.

@Rachel Glass I think the better question would be: is poetry defined by the mere use of line breaks? The answer is no. It's an aspect of poetry, but it doesn't define it (nor does rhyme for that matter). It's like calling something poetic automatically enshrines it in Poetry– it's not the case. Poetry is every line working together as a whole, not a smattering of words surrounding one powerful line that everyone seems to latch onto. It's a conversation between the poet and the reader, not a lecture to the reader. Poetry, in the end, is the halfway mark between literature and visual art, so the poem itself should not be woven out of the aesthetics, but rather the aesthetics woven out of the poem. Then ride the wave of its flow.

@Sophie @T.B Pardon my interjection, but as someone who has been there and done this a few times without success (despite all boxes being checked prior), I can attest to this answer: if the love you have is truest of true, you WILL have a masterpiece whether rejected or not.

Rhyme and constraints are actually a great starting point for those who want to write Free Verse. It's said that "you will not understand freedom if you don't understand constraints". I spent 10 years in rhyme by choice, as I wanted to learn how of the craft worked: how sound worked, how flow worked, how I could mold structure in the boundaries of structure. So by the time I was ready to make a foray into Free Verse, it was easy to slip into a mindset of pure flow. People treat rhyme as obsolete and a dead language, but it's an advantage. Not everyone can ride a two-wheel bike on the first try. For those wanting to write Free Verse, think of Rhyme as training wheels. But a motto I have to share with poets of all styles and forms is "Don't think; feel"– the poem knows what I wants, let the poem do the talking.