Petra-- thanks for your kind words and your question alike. Lemme see if I can answer it.
We should ever be wary of building false idols to anything-- in life, in poeming. I freaking love rhyme. Love it, love it, love it. I'm excited about the things it can do for a poem, and so what I work on in my writing is pushing the limits of it. I'm certainly NOT averse to traditional rhyme schemes-- again, you'll find them in my collections, dotted here and there. But rhyme is meant to move the poem along, not to stand out like a big sore distracted thumb. I have to check myself often, lest I get too flashy, self-satisfied. I guess that's something we all have to be aware of, tho.
I don't know how to answer what people think about them. I hope they like them-- but the problem of having a foot in two different camps is that perhaps neither camp knows you altogether well. I often call myself a "Formal-ish" poet. I think that suits the work I do, dorky though it may be.
