How to Handle the Perpetual Meter Monster

RX for a poet plagued by metrical exhaustion

Healing spiral of meters. Art: Ailee Turcotte. Design: ARCF

My father, the only other Ph.D in my family, once advised me to use the name “Dr. Finch”when callng for restaurant reservations, since it might lead to a better table. I should try this again. Not only is it good to get some benefit from the degree (especially after leaving academia to found Meter Magic Spiral), but using the title always thrills my inner healer.

Recently I received a plea from a poet named Gale that touched the inner healer profoundly and opened some interesting new ground. Gale agreed to let me answer her question in this forum. Here is our correspondence:

GALE: “Hi, I really enjoyed your Rattle interview and was wondering, if you ever get tired from meter, how do you renew it?? I have really been working on this and would love to know! :) Nonstop metrical clock ---”

ANNIE: This is a great question. I looked up your work, and I found this link. 
Is this the kind of meter you usually write? If so, I think the answer will be of interest to others, and I would love to reply to the question on my Poetry Witch substack. If that's ok, please feel free to expand the question if you want, and I will reply.

GALE: What a great surprise to hear from you! These are two poems I wrote in my fundraising career -- thanks for bringing them to my attention. :) I think the meter and rhyme has grown but I feel good about these for subject matter -- sure, if you'd love to share I'd be so grateful! I'm also working on a collection of linked sonnets. I can tell the poems I like best have strongest rhythm. Thanks again!!!

ANNIE: So, will you describe a little more what you mean by "getting tired from meter"? Do you mean getting bored, or is it more like exhaustion, or something else?  (And also, just confirming the linked poems are in the kind of meter you were talking about, that you sometimes feel tired from?)

GALE: I think it's like the lights are always on (metrically), even when no one's home and/or have been writing for days .... I was wondering if you think in meter 24/7, like sensitive to every sound? This is very pertinent to navigating life as a poet, it seems. :) Thanks!! I've dug far and wide for tips ... it feels like a guest that doesn't want to leave?? :)  Thanks again --- I know it's an unusual vein of inquiry.

Here’s my reply:

Dear Gale,

First, yes! You are not alone. I have been there, and so have most of the poets I have taught meter to, especially in the in-person workshops. It used to be a running joke among the poets that we couldn’t turn off whatever meter we were focusing on in workshop. Just as you describe, it’s like we were invaded by it. We were thinking in it, talking in it, hearing it everywhere.

And there were about ten years in my own life when it got so bad,