Good morning, friends! I wrote this free-verse poem for my creative writing course. I hope you enjoy it and it brings a smile to your face! My dad thinks poetry is stupid. He says poets simply decide to hit enter randomly without any good reason. Why can’t this all be one line? What makes this one word so special it deserves a line of its own? My dad likes things like right angles And strategy games And big books of theology And cinnamon cookies And Ohio State football He designs pumps and understands math, but when he reads poems, He wonders if they would make more sense Upside-down

This summer, I’ve been taking a creative writing class for college. It’s been alternately stressful and fun. Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been working on some poetry. After reading over the chapter in my textbook covering different forms of poetry, short stories, and creative nonfiction, I decided to try one of them. I’m calling this a “Free-Verse List Poem.” I hope you find it entertaining. “Things on an Author’s Desk” ONE stuffed black cat, wearing a teal bowtie ELEVEN wooden pencils, all dull, FIVE with original erasers TWO tape dispensers, ONE shaped like a cupcake, the other empty ONE magnet bookmark, Grumpy Cat brand THREE tubes of chapstick, TWO…