Free verse or strict form, which do you actually enjoy writing more

[Merchant94]

Sonnets, villanelles and haiku all force a certain discipline that free verse doesn't, but plenty of poets find the structure liberating rather than restrictive once they get used to it. Where do you land, and has that preference shifted over time.

[Foundry69]

Free verse is what I reach for when I want the poem to sound like thought rather than architecture. The lack of a visible scaffold lets me follow an image wherever it wants to go, which is useful right up until the poem starts wandering around the house looking for its car keys. Editing becomes the real discipline: cutting repetition, controlling line breaks, and making sure every loose-looking line is actually doing something.