John Lambert and I continue to have conversations based around the suspended in a leap of creative faith concept and were discussing, recently, why structure in poetry, why form is important to learn.
His response email is lesson worthy of exposure. —
J, we had discussed the question of
‘why create in villanelle?’
and answered that with ‘because employing forms
teaches you to be more creative within a structure’.
i wished to add this found thought:
…structure exists because
we expect cohesion from thoughts,
and structure is the framework for reason to exist
functioning as unseen as bones and beams
but necessary, unless you want to live in mud huts
as floopy things.
any sort of structure will do, from the pre-packaged
to the found art creation. invent, restore, whatever.
but if, as a creator, you ignore the need for structure
good luck to you keeping a roof on the shape of your art.
-...Running From Zero...+ 
This reminds me of a thought I’ve been toying with recently. I have been pondering the idea of a story and why its so attractive to us and how this influences the way we live our lives.
This lead me to thoughts on definition and we why we are driven to define things. On one hand definition can restrict / stereotype / flatten an aspect of the story. On the other hand it is absolutely necessary otherwise you end up with a floppy thing or in other words a “Grandpa Story”.
And this is why I like David Bohms Idea of the Rheomode! Again! its back in my life! it allows us to create a definition but only momentarily! And this allows us to understand both sides to the thing we have just defined! The side we actually define and the side left unspoken!
I’m reminded there of the “one hand clapping” koan – what is defined and what is left unspoken. Those two hands are this duality and one must realize they aren’t separate – they are a single hand.
So besides the rheomode, what other ways can we pay homage to definition but not limit its multifaceted self?
If you are interested in poetic structure on a very basic level, I suggest getting your hands on a copy of “The Making of a Poem” edited by Eavan Boland and Mark Strand. It’s something I suggest to students all the time. Also instructive, Robert Pinsky’s “The Sound of Poetry.”