Poetry Journey #8

"Our Family is Two, but Never One" - Experimenting with Structure

Form Following Function

Here's this week's poem:

Our Family is Two, But Never One

Sometimes three, when we have our wee.
Four, or five—woven together,
A perfect merging of lives and love.
Never one—it's always two.
A steady rhythm,
A quiet strength.
Built on love and peace,
Held by trust,
Rooted in us.

What I Was Attempting: I wanted to capture how a relationship creates its own entity, how "two" becomes something new while remaining "two." The fragmented structure was meant to mirror the way relationships shift and flow.

What I Think Works:

• The structure does feel dynamic

• "Never one—it's always two" captures something true about partnership

• The short lines create a rhythmic pulse

• The concept is more interesting than my previous attempts

Where I Struggle:

• "Perfect merging" makes me cringe now

• "Love and peace" is so generic it could be a bumper sticker

• The ending feels like I ran out of steam rather than reached a conclusion

Technical Questions:

• Are my line breaks intentional or just random?

• Does the fragmentation serve the poem or just look "poetic"?

• Is "woven together" fresh enough or another cliché?

What I'm Realising: I like experimenting with form, but I need to be more purposeful about why I'm breaking lines where I do.

Questions for Readers:

• Does the structure work for you or feel arbitrary?

• How do you decide when to break a line?

• What would make the abstract concepts more concrete?