Formal vs. Free Verse

Personally, I prefer more formal styles of poetry. I spent 9 years of my life as a percussionist in high school and then college bands, so the rhythm of poetry is very important to me. Additionally, I am a songwriter. If the chorus of a song doesn’t, to some extent, include patterns of rhythm and rhyme, it will not be memorable or successful. I do not mean to say that every single poem must be written in iambic pentameter with a defined rhyme scheme throughout. I am merely advocating for poems to have some echo of a formal structure.