Line Em' Up

"Crow is Walking"

Crow is walking to see things at ground level,

the ground as new under his feet as the air is old under his wings.

He laves the dead rabbit

waiting -- it's a given, it'll always be there --

and walks down the dirt road, admires the pebbles, how they sparkle in the sun;

checks out his reflection in a puddle full of sky

which reminds him of where he's supposed to be,

but he's beginning to like the way the muscles move in his legs

and the way his wings feel so comfortable

folded back and resting.

He thinks he might be beautiful, the sun lighting his back with purple and green.

Faint voices from somewhere far ahead roll like dust down the road towards him.

He hurries a little.

His tongue moves in his mouth; legends of language move in his mind.

His beak opens.

He tries a word.



-- Grace Butcherfrom Poetry , 2000.



I feel that the way I split up my poem into lines added great effect to the mood and "poetic effects" in it. I tried to make the line breaks in the poem at the end of each complete thought, which lent more emphasis on the very beginning and the end of each line. The combination of advejctives and nouns at the ends of the top lines all provide a passiveness to the actions of the crow, which mocks his attitude in this poem. At the end, with verbs ending the phrases, it adds emphasis to a change in action of the crow and continues to mimick his build up to an action, and then end with another noun. Another point I tried to make by splitting up the lines in this way is to emphasize the change in action and thought process of the crow.