Reacting against the occasionally peculiar colometry of the BHS, in which line division in poetry was determined by the supposed meter of a text, the BHQ adopted for poetry the standard of following the colometry implied by the MT cantillation, the te’amim. Indeed, for many interpreters, the cantillation marks are de facto an inviolable guide to translation and interpretation (and for some, the absolute primacy of the cantillation system is an expressed conviction). In the majority of cases, to be sure, the MT cantillation can be regarded as a valid representation of a poem’s colometry. In some cases, however, the MT cantillation creates lines that are all but untranslatable. These are typically remedied either by emendation or by subjecting the Hebrew to a forced or non-standard translation. This paper will argue that the problems of apparently incongruous Hebrew poetry can often be resolved by adjusting the colometry of the offending verses. That is, by setting aside the cantillation in dividing a poetic text into lines, one can often achieve a translation that is entirely coherent. Neither emendations nor overwrought translation proposals are called for. To demonstrate this thesis, I will look at several translation difficulties in Psalm 17, but I will also give examples from other psalms. I will argue that common solutions for the difficult verses are not persuasive.