...ahem. :)

There's a reason I keep saying this: form follows function in effective poetry. Get the function worked out properly -- that is, "actually (conceive) something" as your goal -- and the choice of form usually will take care of itself.

By that measure, "Ranch" is not half bad (as free verse works for conveying naked thoughts in a way that rhyming and metrical verse never will) -- although I agree that the poem should've adhered at least to normal grammar and syntax (making the poem more, not less, powerful in its expression). Its line breaks and indentations do serve a worthwhile purpose (for once) if you let them lead you to the changing (and again for once, realistic) mental and emotional state of the author. The more one prefers rhyme and meter, the harder one will find this to do -- yet this week the job is simple compared to what one has faced in so many of the arcane, obscure and often pretentious poems we've been given on Tuesdays.

In sum, I agree with those that say that this poem deserves a rewrite, but not a one-way trip to the wastebin. (Where are the editors of published poems when you need them to demand rewrites from authors?)

wr ()()