Writers for Writers: Wes McNair's Rules for Poetry Line Breaks

Recently crowned with the title of Maine's Poet Laureate (What some argue is the only good decision made by governor Lepage), and who is also the founder of UMaine Farmington's BFA creative writing program, Wes Mcnair often meets with UMF students in his retired years in a workshop or one-shot lecture format to offer his sage advice.
This semester, Wes visited to discuss his new thinking, among other things, about why and how to select one's poetic line breaks. He eluded to having a longer list, but please enjoy the ten thoughts he shared with us.
For more about Wes McNair, see: http://blackwidow.umf.maine.edu/~wesmcnair/


Rules for Line Breaking
1. Break to suggest central action and its unfolding, to create anticipation
Let words stick out of your lines that connect to the poem's heart. Also, let the lines create tension, as professor Jeff Thompson would put it. Make the reader chase you to the next line to find out what fell, or who chased her, or whatever have you.
2. Break for interplay between line and sentence; This is free verse's rhyme & meter equivalent
In other words, as Wes was once advised: The line is Buddha, the sentence is Socrates 
Buddha is content to be were he is, as he is, the way a line, on its own, its simple, perhaps pretty or cryptic, but calm. Socrates is always asking, wanting, and hungry. You follow the entire sentence line to line to find out what, who, or why, jumping from Buddha to Buddha until your questions are answered. When line breaking, be aware of how you answer Socrates's questions effectively, but also create graceful pauses in your lines, to enjoy the moment.  
3. To create a graph of feeling
Playing with jagged margins, or waves, or open space to illustrate a reflection of the poem's feeling. Using shorter lines for riddles and unknowns also plays with what isn't said.
4. Break to emphasize related sounds
Is there a song to your poem? Find the music. See if there is a sense of metronome, or words you can link together at the poem's pauses to create a resonance. This can be done with or without rhyme.  
5. The word at the end of the line is most important.
Use Nouns, verbs, and their describers. All sentences have and, the, or but. They are less important, only connectors. End on the words that need to stand out of the poem, let them linger with the reader on the end of the line before they continue through your poem, or follow them through their day after they put your poem down.
6. Break to show the stresses of meditation
Listen to people around you as they speak. It was Wes Mcnair's observation that people speak in line breaks as well as can write in them. People pause for thought, for continued meditation, at places in their sentences that are their own, and make their voice. He advises to play with this in our poetry.
7. When breaking, be aware of stanza form: Do you use regular, or irregular stanzas?
You'd better know, and have done it on purpose.
8. "Let me learn the rules so I can break them"
In the days of rhyme and meter, rhythm would be broken in choice places in order to bring attention to a message. This rule was not abandoned in the days of free verse. Create a theme, pattern, or message, and then obscure it. Play with capital letters or punctuation at the end of lines in a way that brings focus to a contrary feeling or ironic concept.  
9. Find the second story
It isn't really a secret of the trade that poems about waltzes, or red wheelbarrows, or horses at night, rarely stop at just creating those everyday images. There is always a "second story," or rather, a reason for why the initial object was worth writing about, a discovery that is made along the way.   

Additionally, putting this much though into how one writes their poetry makes you a stronger reader. You will pay more attention to these choices as they are made by other poets, and take this play into consideration when you absorb their work.

Tameri Guide for Writers' Latin Phrases

This is is taken from:
http://www.tameri.com/write/coollatin.html
It is not mine, but I'm sharing their knowledge for its value. =)

Latin Phrases

It’s a matter of taste and style, but not long ago American writers attempted to demonstrate their credentials to the world by including Latin and French phrases within works. A dash of Latin was expected of the moderately educated throughout the Western world.

annus mirabilis - wonderful year

arbiter elegantiae - judge of the elegant; one who knows the good things in life

bona fides - good faith; credentials

carpe diem - sieze the day; enjoy the present

casus belli - cause justifying a war

caveat emptor - buyer beware

cui bono? - for whose advantage?

de facto - of fact; it is

de gustibus non est disputandum - no disputing tastes; there is no accounting for taste

Dei gratia - by the grace of God

Deo gratias - thanks to God

Deo volente - God willing

dis aliter visum - it seemed otherwise to the gods

Dominus vobiscum - Lord be with you

dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - sweet and seemly it is to die for one’s country

ecce homo - behold man

ex cathedra - with authority

ex more - with or according to customs

exempli gratia - for example (e.g.)

genius loci - spirit of the location

hic et ubique - here and everywhere

hinc illae lacrimae - hence, those tears

humanum est errare - to err is human; human is to err

id est - that is (i.e.)

in extremis - at death

in hoc signo vinces - by this sign, you conquer

in loco parentis - in place of the parent

in medias res - into the middle of things; the heart of the matter

in omnia paratus - prepared for all; ready for anything

in perpetuum - forever; perpetually

in propia persona - in person; in one’s own life or words

in statu quo - as things were

in toto - entirely; in total

ipso jure - the law itself

jure divino - Divine law

labor omnia vincit - labor conquers all things; effort results in victory

laborare est orare - to work is to pray

laus Deo - praise God

loco citato - in the location cited

loquitur - he speaks

mens sana in corpore sano - of sound mind in a healthy body

meum et tuum - mine and yours

modus operandi - mode of operating

morituri te salutamus - we who are about to die, salute you

motu proprio - of one’s own accord; on your own

multum in parvo - there is much in little

nemo me impune lacessit - no one attacks me with impunity

nil admirari - wondering at nothing

nolens volens - willing or not

Nota Bene - note well; pay special attention to

omnia vincit amor - love conquers all

opere citato - in the volume cited; in the book cited

otium cum dignitate - leisure with dignity

passim - here and there

pater patriae - father of his country

pax vobiscum - peace be with you

persona non grata - unwelcome person

primus inter pares - first among equals

pro bono publico - for the public good

pro Deo et ecclesia - for God and the Church

pro forma - as a matter of form; standard

quod erat demonstrandum - which was demonstrated; that which was shown

requiescat in pace - rest in peace

sic - thus; so it was

sic passim - so throughout

sic semper tyrannis - thus always to tyrants

sine die - some day; not a particular time

sine quo non - without which, nothing; it is essential

tempus fugit - time flies

timeo Danaos et dona ferentes - I fear the Greeks, even when they bear gifts

verbatim et literatim - word for word, letter for letter