The Ballad of Schatz and Waksman

[busker]

Hi Busker,

Thanks for your input. Yeah, I know the traditional poetic form of the ballad is very structured, with lots of rhyme, but I meant ballad in the broader sense that it seems to be used in some movie titles (essentially basically just meaning a story, I guess). As regards using the actual ballad form, who knows, I might try it sometime.

Cheers again,

Trevor

This is not a question of tradition vs freedom
The poem above is not a poem. It lacks the brevity and punch that is always there with poetry, even free verse. This is prose. 
You need to figure out how to turn it into a poem. Adopting a structure is one way, but there are others.