C. T. Suddeth

Eureka moment. I was subbing high school English for special needs kids, helping them with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet written in Blank Verse—unrhymed iambic pentameter. I hadn’t read Shakespeare in years and had forgotten how great his poetry is. Now I write my own blank verse. [Shakespeare and I are descended from Lady Godiva, so we are cousins, though I doubt he wants to be]

And, when he shall die, / Take him and cut him out in little stars, / And he will make the face of heaven so fine / That all the world will be in love with night / And pay no worship to the garish sun.