It’s hard to believe that Teachers Write wraps up this week! Today, we’re talking about one of the things that makes a poem different from prose — the way it looks on the page. Mentor poet Margarita Engle joins us for a mini-lesson on line breaks. 

The Power of Line Breaks in Free Verse 

Line breaks are one of the most misunderstood aspects of poetry. Beginners often attempt to write verse novels by simply inserting random line breaks into prose. Since poetry is musical, arbitrary line breaks cannot substitute for the varied rhythms and melodies of free
verse. Even when there is no meter or rhyme, music is created with poetic devices such as similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, and the open spaces between lines and stanzas.

One of my favorite things about free verse is the way open spaces are not empty. They are used by the poet to create a mood, ask unspoken questions, even suggest the possibility of invisible answers. Open spaces are interactive—a place where the minds and emotions of poets and readers meet in midair.

I hope teachers never ask young readers what my poems mean. Please ask “how does the poem make you feel’ instead. That way, children and teens won’t be intimidated by poetry. They might even respond to open spaces by writing their own responses, or drawing pictures, or performing a dance, or joining a climate action club. I think of this powerful interaction as resonance, like the echoes after ringing a bell. Resonance can only be heard by listening. In other words, the line and stanza breaks invite us to pause, listen, imagine, question, wonder…

Here is an example from my new young adult verse novel, Wings in the Wild. Dariel is a climate refugee from California, and Soleida is a refugee from Cuba. They meet in Costa Rica, where they fall in love.

FOREST STROLL
Dariel

fingers
entwine

sunlight
and mist

our voices
become smiles

air
lips
kiss

I like to imagine a young reader listening to the gentle resonance of this tiny poem. Maybe they’ll ask the same question I have about climate action: Is there hope? Maybe they’ll hear the same unspoken answer: Yes, because people who love each other care about survival.

Today’s assignment: Choose one of the poems you’ve drafted this summer to read aloud. Take some time to play around with the line breaks. Experiment. How do different choices affect the poem? 

Margarita Engle is the Cuban-American author of many verse novels, memoirs, and picture books, including The Surrender Tree, Enchanted Air, Drum Dream Girl, and Dancing Hands. Awards include a Newbery Honor, Pura Belpré, Golden Kite, Walter, Jane Addams, PEN U.S.A., and NSK Neustadt, among others. Margarita served as the national 2017- 2019 Young People’s Poet Laureate. She is a three-time U.S. nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Book Award. Her most recent books are Wings in the Wild and Destiny Finds Her Way. Her next young adult verse novel is Wild Dreamers, and her next picture books are Water Day and The Sculptors of Light. Margarita was born in Los Angeles, but developed a deep attachment to her mother’s homeland during childhood summers with relatives on the island. She studied agronomy and botany along with creative writing, and now lives in central California with her husband.

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