For the African American Poet one of the most profound forms for poetry is Free verse. Free verse is a term describing various styles of poetry that are written without using strict meter or rhyme. It is a very recognizable style of poetry that is free from the normal rules of poetry. The writer decides how the poem should look, feel, and sound.

When you hear the term it applies not only to freedom from traditional meter, but freedom to use visual and sound effects as desired – for surprise, thickening of meaning, symmetry, repetition, or simply for fun. Lines can also be shortened for speed, or segmented into clots of words or syllables to slow down the reading or comprehension.

Some of the most prolific free verse poets come from the African American community. Poets like Robert Hayden, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni all found solace in the beauty of free verse because of the range it gives you to truly say what you want with out having to concern yourself with the rhyme of meter. Free verse simply allows you to write words as they flow.

Here is a sample of a free verse poem by Nikki Giovanni:

Winter Poem
Nikki Giovanni

once a snowflake fell
on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower

In reading Ms Giovanni’s poetry you can see the many facets of free verse that make this form so beautiful.  In free verse poetry the poet may choose to rhyme some words but it is not necessary. As with Winter Poem, you can witness that a free verse poem may be just a sentence that is artistically laid out on the page or it can be pages of words. Some forms of free verse separate, or split, phrases and words between lines. Punctuation may be absent or it may be used to place greater emphasis on specific words. The main object of free verse is to use colorful words, punctuation, and word placement to convey meaning to the reader.

For the African American Poet, free verse is like taking off the shackles and running towards a liberty in words and form.