Activity

Alrighty, so! I’ve got this free verse poem I wrote, and obviously since free verse is free of both rhyme and meter there’s not really a “wrong” way to write it, but does anyone have tips on writing free verse?

Below is the aforementioned poem.

The Chess Match

 

“Checkmate!” you said.

I moved a pawn

In front of my king.

“Pawns can’t move sideways,” you said.

I shrugged and smiled.

“The pawn has an airplane.”

You looked at the boardm

And captured both pawn and king.

“My rook has a laser beam,” you said.

I tapped one of your knights.

(You’re playing with black; me, white.)

“This knight is loyal to me.

My king gave her the kingdom.

You can’t kill your own color.”

You studied on this

And with a flick of my wrist,

Your king is alone on the board. 

But this didn’t phase you;

It rather amused you,

And my pieces, along with the knight,

Found themselves under the board,

Your king on a single square up above.

I flicked a lever,

And an iron cage surrounded your king.

“We’re at a standstill,” I said.

“You are trapped and so am I.

And yet, you cannot kill your knight,

My queen.” 

You just smiled and your king pulled out 

A cannon that fit in his hands.

A bishop of mine threw a rock.

It knocked your cannon out of reach.

But I watched in amazement

As it fell to the basement,

Falling onto your black knight, my queen.

“I cannot kill my own piece,” you said.

“But you certainly can.”

 

(Based on a rather unusual game of chess that a friend and I played over text messages. Like, this was quite exactly what happened. It started with me sending this “cheating at chess is more fun than actually playing chess” list of things like “oh look at that! While you went to get a snack, my pawns found Jesus and are all bishops now.” Then my friend and I literally played a game of chess but cheating XD He ended up winning by cleverly finding a loophole in my reasoning.)