The Line

[milo]

And if it isn't free verse? With meter and rhyme: then, are there different line break rules? Can I break in the middle of an iamb/trochee etc? Or.. should I stick with a precise pattern?

There are different rules for line breaks with rhyme and meter but the concepts are the same. Rhyme and meter actually increase the emphasis on the last word in a line making the line break even more important. There are other rules regarding catalexis and feminine endings, post some example lines and we can walk through them.

Thanks Milo! I might as well be specific.. the poem I am working on now.. I'd like to do this with it.. but not sure if it is okay to do so.. you are welcome to use any part of it as an example..

Her short black skirt was inches from revealing 
more than thigh,
while bent to find the coins she dropped. 
His mouth betrayed a sigh,
enough hot breath to fog a glass. 
It made a sickness stem
inside my chest to spy his eyes 
attack the flimsy hem. 

A nasty smirk appeared, she turned 
and accidentally pressed 
her overflowing bosom 
up against my husband's chest.
My jaw unhinged. I thought my bulging 
eyes could take no more.
That's when he had audacity to touch 
that filthy whore. 

Their giggling burst a vessel 
somewhere deep inside my brain. 
I twirled to face a gentleman,
leaning on his cane,
"My husband likes to flirt 
with every harlot he can find. 
I'm wondering if, for revenge,
you'd like to fuck me blind?"

In metric verse, because the position of the line break is preset, the trick is to use word choice to have your line breaks work for you. In rhymed, metric verse, the word that ends the line is even more important as the beat and sonic echo drive even heavier emphasis onto the line. If you wanted to break these massive heptametric couplets (and I would if I were you) the natural selection is abcb ballad meter like so:

Her short black skirt was inches from
revealing more than thigh,
while bent to find the coins she dropped.
His mouth betrayed a sigh,

enough hot breath to fog a glass.
It made a sickness stem
inside my chest to spy his eyes
attack the flimsy hem.

A nasty smirk appeared, she turned
and accidentally pressed
her overflowing bosom up
against my husband's chest.

My jaw unhinged. I thought my bulging
eyes could take no more.
That's when he had audacity
to touch that filthy whore.

Their giggling burst a vessel somewhere
deep inside my brain.
I twirled to face a gentleman,
leaning on his cane,

"My husband likes to flirt with every
harlot he can find.
I'm wondering if, for revenge,
you'd like to fuck me blind?"

See how the poem is instantly more readable and lighter without changing a single word? Now the trick is to see if you can examine your end words and try to build double meanings, suggestion, irony, tension and focus. Good luck.