Prose poetry?

[Liar]

Okay, after 2 minutes of research (I become bored very easily) I found that prose poetry is a hybrid and it's not suppose to be "poetry," but instead, it is a form of prose with poetic characteristics (or poetry with prose characteristics).

Hockay, but since I have yet to see a definition of Poetry that I could understand, I'm still as lost.

Maybe my first attempt was poetry with prose characteristics, and my second one prose with poetic characteristics. But then it was prose poetry all along?

 

[WickedEve]

Hockay, but since I have yet to see a definition of Poetry that I could understand, I'm still as lost.

Maybe my first attempt was poetry with prose characteristics, and my second one prose with poetic characteristics. But then it was prose poetry all along?

I--Don't--Know. lol Isn't there anyone out there who knows the answer? I want to know!
I'm going to write this thing and I'm going to call my thing possibly prose poetry. The "possibly" should serve as a disclaimer for all those who comment and say, "It's not poetry. It's not prose. It's not prose poetry. It's not even written words the way they should be written."

 

[The Mutt]

How short is too short to be considered a short story?
Are there rules about that as well?

 

[Liar]

I--Don't--Know. lol Isn't there anyone out there who knows the answer? I want to know!
I'm going to write this thing and I'm going to call my thing possibly prose poetry. The "possibly" should serve as a disclaimer for all those who comment and say, "It's not poetry. It's not prose. It's not prose poetry. It's not even written words the way they should be written."

I think I'm gonna settle with just writing things and let people call them whatever they bloody like.

 

[Miss Oatlash]

I--Don't--Know. lol Isn't there anyone out there who knows the answer? I want to know!
I'm going to write this thing and I'm going to call my thing possibly prose poetry. The "possibly" should serve as a disclaimer for all those who comment and say, "It's not poetry. It's not prose. It's not prose poetry. It's not even written words the way they should be written."

Why do we insist on putting labels on everything? Poetry, prose, bi, straight, butt picking monkey...OK, maybe that last one is useful. LOL

But, seriously, I'm never sure what a 'poem' really is. I only know that if it speaks to me in BOTH it's written and aural form, I consider it poetry. But who am I to say?

If the author calls it poetry, or prose poetry, that's enough for me.

 

[thenry]

I think what's missing from this discussion is the appreciation of good prose. I think most everyone assumes prose poetry to be words written in the prose form "aspiring" to poetry when in fact there is quite a lot about prose worth aspiration and prose poetry a blending of the two.

For example, it is quite difficult to include dialogue in poetry yet we have acceptable conventions built in to prose. And there is something about most poetry which draws attention to the words themselves, to the small, where as in prose the attention is drawn to the larger picture.

Also I've always found meter much more interesting and powerful in prose poetry without the line breaks inserting a stop into my scansion. (And wouldn't that be an odd sentence to drop into conversation at a cocktail party.)

 

[Angeline]

I think what's missing from this discussion is the appreciation of good prose. I think most everyone assumes prose poetry to be words written in the prose form "aspiring" to poetry when in fact there is quite a lot about prose worth aspiration and prose poetry a blending of the two.

For example, it is quite difficult to include dialogue in poetry yet we have acceptable conventions built in to prose. And there is something about most poetry which draws attention to the words themselves, to the small, where as in prose the attention is drawn to the larger picture.

Also I've always found meter much more interesting and powerful in prose poetry without the line breaks inserting a stop into my scansion. (And wouldn't that be an odd sentence to drop into conversation at a cocktail party.)

I think what you are describing accounts for the poeticism of novelists like James Joyce (the most obvious) and Virginia Woolf--very poetic prose, but less obvious than Joyce. But neither of them would be considered prose poets. Seems to me though there is a fairly fine line between some writers who are accpeted as novelists and writers of the examples Eve provided--which is more like what I've seen at "prose poetry" sites online.

 

[The Mutt]

I think what you are describing accounts for the poeticism of novelists like James Joyce (the most obvious) and Virginia Woolf--very poetic prose, but less obvious than Joyce. But neither of them would be considered prose poets. Seems to me though there is a fairly fine line between some writers who are accpeted as novelists and writers of the examples Eve provided--which is more like what I've seen at "prose poetry" sites online.

We did readings of Edgar Allan Poe at my theatre last Halloween. I was fortunate enough to get to read The Masque of the Red Death. When you hear it aloud, it is so poetic. It has a plot, but I believe its musicality is its essential feature.
Try reading it aloud sometime. It takes about 15 minutes. It's amazing.