How do you know when your free verse is any good?

If every word does not count, keep at it if there is a single word which you have not actually chosen for a reason, cut it or change it vers libre (which is a f*cking oxymoron if ever I heard one, as if it is free from verse form or rules, it ain't verse - duh!) is exactly the same as formal verse. Say nothing if you do not mean it. Make every word count. NEVER NEVER NEVER just cascade your feelings and say 'what now, I don't know where to go because there are no rules'. BALLS you majke the rules, Your sense of the aesthetic, of the poetic is where the buck stops, not the OED or DR J Evans Prichard's 'Understanding Poetry'. Don't get dragged into the facile, flabby trap of thinking that vers libre is unfocused. There is too much @!#$ which simply streams from the pen and the 'poet' thinks 'it's ok if it sounds slack, it's free verse'. There is a happy medium between de-dum-de-dum-de-dum rhyming metrics and shambolic freedom. Check out the internal rhythyms and stresses of Simon armitage's 'rhymed' poetry, or even a poet on this site like Stevo. be cool, dude

one piece of advice i heard was "fill your work with concrete things" ... it's a quote from someone and i forget who ... i think it works though ... i get irritated by poems which are full of loads of abstract stuff endless feelings pouring out ... i get drawn into a poem by concrete details ... one of liana's poems has a coat on the back of a door ... it is an image that sticks in the head ... i think these things can speak for the feelings of the poet perhaps ... possibly another thing is to think is the poem set in a place and a time ... not sure if this will work but you can try it ...

Thanks for the advice, I know I tend to add in a load of useless drivel, you know, where every single object or action (i forget the proper english terms... I really dont belong here :D) has about three descriptive words stuck some where on it i.e her soft silky breath gently caressed by tired sallow cheek etc... bleh. Ill remember to cut those bits out and stick more in about coats and doors :P

I have trawled through some of my own work in an attempt to answer this quesion, an answer I am never quite sure of myself, and I have to admit, I still don't know. For me the concrete is irrelevant, but based on ratings and cherries, my taste is in opposition to the majority. I would go for flow and pace within a poem; when reading I want something that pulls me in and along rather than something holds me back and forces me to re-read each line over again before I can move on. From this perspective concrete content is irrelevant. If you write rhyme and rhythm and are adept at it, I believe you need not worry about the difference between that and free verse. I'd always tell someone to keep at the rhyme and meter until it becomes second nature, it's a valuable skill. I mean, free verse still has rhythm, it's just less obvious.

cubic meters of concrete are always relevant. it's those that cannot count sillybubs and force the rime that renders it unworkable. we water our concrete down on site. it makes it flow more freely. bob the nob

You know when your free verse is good enough when someone offers to pay for it.

oh yes, of course, how come I didn't think of that

Hmmm, I try writing in concrete and it just doesnt look like poetry to me, the tiny amount of ... creativity? Talent? Soul? What ever it is it shouts at me to burn it BURN IT... ahem, excuse me. Maybe its just not my forte