What is Ranged Form Poetry?
RANGED FORM POEM:
A "musical poem" which allows each line to be written within a range of metrical feet or rhythmic beats (instead of dictating a meter or rhythm); and which places end-rhymes within certain range of one another (instead of dictating a rhyming pattern.) Ranged Form emphasizes inspiration and musicality, while preserving elements of formal poetry.
Ranged Form Poems can be quite subtle and sophisticated, without going off the deep end of false sophistication that turns poetry into enjambed prose.
MUSICAL POEM:
A poem which, unlike Free Verse, uses musical speech elements like rhyme, rhythm, meter, or alliteration.
HOW RANGED POETRY DIFFERS FROM FORMAL POETRY:
It still has form, but the form is fluid and shaped in the moment of inspiration. Ranged poetry focuses on musical effects rather than on strict patterns. It is inspired in part by the work of Christian Southern poet Sydney Lanier.
IS RANGED POETRY STILL TRADITIONAL?
In his brilliant theological book, Living Tradition, Orthodox Christian theologian John Meyendorff explains that only dead traditions do not change. In a living tradition, each generation has the authority to further develop the tradition, provided it remains faithful to what has come before.
By this measure, Ranged Poetry is definitely within the English poetic tradition, in that it is a development from formal poetry that has come before, and a rejection of revolutionary word-things.
