Re - the old Renault Poem

This started out as a freewrite from an exercise. I was writing about driving from Edinburgh to Norwich, a journey I did a lot when I was younger.

In writing I realised that one particular journey stood out in my mind and it was travelling past Norwich to London. It also started out as a happy memory, but in further drafts I found I split my lines to make them seem a little more sinister... not sure this is the right word, perhaps because they raise questions for the reader.

'He was not my father he said'


I became confused when I was splitting the free write up. I think because I was trying to put it into the form of a poem I thought I needed to use metre and rhyme. I had made a rhyme well with 'Norwich' as my central word and I still used the Norwich/Norway rhyme line to add more of a beat and beef up the stanzas. As this is a free verse poem do I need to comment on this if I used something simillar in my TMA?

I have shyed away from using a particular scheme. I think I might go and try my hand at a sonnet though. I have written on and off for such a long time that I felt I wrote farily intuitively . What I have never done before is share my work. I am trying very hard to follow the BRB and learn the 'habit' along with the exercises. I think when I come to write something within the TMA outline I find it hard to put my process into words that fit within the language we use at the OU. I can only put this down to the fact that I don't fully understand the process which causes me to write what I do.

When I read this poem aloud I know why I want to change words, but I do not know if it is because of their position in metre, if they rhyme and with what word. SO I end up feeling like i have clutched at straws rather than sculpted a poem by means a poet should or would.

Thank you for your time this is really helping to place my thoughts.