While many of the poems we fea­ture in this col­umn are writ­ten in open forms, that’s not to say I don’t respect good writ­ing done in tra­di­tion­al meter and rhyme. But a num­ber of con­tem­po­rary poets, know­ing how a rigid attach­ment to form can take charge of the writ­ing and drag the poet along behind, will choose, say, the tra­di­tion­al vil­lanelle form, then relax its restraints through the use of bro­ken rhythm and inex­act rhymes. I’d guess that if I weren’t talk­ing about it, you might not notice, read­ing this poem by Floyd Skloot, that you were read­ing a sonnet.