Poem A Day #12 is to be written in Free Verse.  The word prompt is ‘echo’.

Free Verse is:

From https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/free-verse
and https://literarydevices.net/free-verse/:

“Nonmetrical, nonrhyming lines that closely follow the natural rhythms of speech. A regular pattern of sound or rhythm may emerge in free-verse lines, but the poet does not adhere to a metrical plan in their composition. Poets use alliteration, rhyme, cadences, and rhythms to get the required effects for the piece. Matthew Arnold and Walt Whitman explored the possibilities of nonmetrical poetry in the 19th century. Since the early 20th century, the majority of published lyric poetry has been written in free verse. See the work of William Carlos Williams, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound.”

“Features of Free Verse

– Free verse poems have no regular meter or rhythm.
– They do not follow a proper rhyme scheme; they do not have any set rules.
– Based on normal pauses and natural rhythmical phrases, as compared to the artificial constraints of normal poetry.
– Called vers libre, which is a French word meaning ‘free verse.'”

Leading Toward Significance (In Free Verse)
by Michael Romani

Mankind's early history to no mystery is a loving memory
Of an animal of seeming near insignificance grasping
Toward that something greater that we might become

Two Million years ago on an East African hilltop
Mothers cuddled babies while other played games
Echoing much like today, yet, little different than chimps

70,000 years ago or so, homo sapiens formed cultures
Nurturing the thought of a cognitive revolution 
Kick starting into an agricultural then science evolution

A human handprint left 30,000 years ago on a wall
A lone somebody calling out that he or she was there
Never knowing if anyone would ever see or really care

Homo sapiens clung to its closely guarded secret
That it was not so set apart from others in the family
A single hominid's two daughters one chimp one human

That is said to be by many to be the skeleton in our closet
The disturbing secret leaking, flowing from time's faucet
That civilized and uncivilized is separated by a single thread

(c)  February 16, 2019   Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved