"Fresh" is such a subjective word that it is almost like saying "insert prejudices here." Different people will tell you what they value, and those things will not be the same. Like Emily Dickinson, I can judge the greatness of poetry only by its effect on me, and that effect can be produced by different kinds of poetry, in free or formal verse. I recently read Julie Kane's latest book, Mothers of Ireland, and certain lines of it hit me like an arrow. I had to stop and judge the impact, and then see the rest of the poem in a new light. Her book includes a lot of villanelles, sestinas, and ghazals, ancient repeating forms that many people here dislike. Yet it is about cycles of hurt and addiction, so the repetitions are entirely justified by the material, and she often changes elements of the repeating lines to create surprises.
Susan
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