There are many types of poems and many ways to express yourself through the poems. While a great deal of African American poetry is free verse, it is important to challenge yourself sometimes and try other forms of poetry; like the sonnet, haiku, or acrostic. Even if you are not an African American poet but you find yourself writing the same type of poetry, you need to step out of the box too. Moving out of the box into territory that you have never explored is good for your brain.

Let’s take a look at 10 different type of poetry.

• Acrostic: A poem where certain letters, usually the first in each line, form a word or message when read in a sequence.

• Ballade: Poetry with three stanzas of seven, eight or ten lines and a shorter final stanza of four or five. All stanzas end with the same one line refrain.

• Dramatic monologue: A type of poem which is spoken to a listener. The speaker addresses a specific topic while the listener unwittingly reveals details about him/herself.

• Ghazal: A short lyrical poem created in Urdu. It is between 5 and 15 couplets long. Each couplet contains its own poetic thought but is linked in rhyme that is established in the first couplet and continued in the second line of each pair. The lines of each couplet are equal in length. Themes are usually connected to love and romance. The closing signature often includes the poet’s name or allusion to it.

• Haiku: A Japanese lyric verse form having three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons.

• Limerick: A short sometimes vulgar, humorous poem consisting of five anapestic lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have seven to ten syllables, rhyme and have the same verbal rhythm. The 3rd and 4th lines have five to seven syllables, rhyme and have the same rhythm.

• Sestina: A poem consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy. The end words of the first stanza are repeated in varied order as end words in the other stanzas and also recur in the envoy.

• Sonnet: A lyric poem that consists of 14 lines which usually have one or more conventional rhyme schemes.

• Tanka: A Japanese poem of five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables and the other seven.

• Villanelle:A 19-line poem consisting of five tercets and a final quatrain on two rhymes. The first and third lines of the first tercet repeat alternately as a refrain closing the succeeding stanzas and joined as the final couplet of the quatrain.

These 10 are only the tip of the ice berg. There are more than 30 ways you can express yourself through poetry. Try writing two or three poems in different forms and see how your writing takes on new legs.