prose poem test

The prose poem is the true test of a poem: Could the piece be unlineated and still be a good poem.

write the room

A prose poet knows how to ‘write’ the room.

prose poem is

I would have placed emphasis on the subversive character of prose poetry. For me, it is a kind of writing determined to prove that there’s poetry beyond verse and its rules. Most often it has an informal, playful air, like the rapid, unfinished caricatures left behind on café napkins. Prose poetry depends on a collision of two impulses, those for poetry and those for prose, and it can either have a quiet meditative air or feel like a performance in a three-ring circus.

—Charles Simic, "Essay on the Prose Poem," delivered on June 1, 2010 at The Poetry Festival in Rotterdam.

insufficient condition

A prose poem in which the prose never rose to a condition of poetry.

against whiplash

Perhaps a prose poet gets tired of being jerked around by linebreaks.

hidden lines

A poem taking advantage of the camouflage afforded by the paragraph.

no such thing

The prosiest of poets are the first to reject the prose poem.

no line drawn

The prose poet willingly risks even the genre for the good of the poem.

goodbye to lonnie

Warning: Writing and/or reading poetry is good for your health. I urge non-poetry readers to open-mindedly browse through the pages of poetry books, especially the works of contemporary poets who amplify our daily ordinariness with craftsmanship and courage. To truly appreciate the language of poetry is to be able to come back to it again and again. Not with wisdom supplied by educators or cerebral articles addressing The Real Meaning, but a willingness to allow the senses to be stirred and nourished. Even reading poetry as a child, I never worried if I “got” it.
     Often students ask where my ideas stem from. Naively I refer to a barrage of inspirations, bowing to the commonplace and the patois of my childhood. But mostly they are guided by the opening of Zora Neale Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God...“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.” That one sentence embodies a poetry I crave to attain. In retrospect there was always a thirst, a growing growl, to tackle and nonchalantly lay down words capable of breathing on their own. At times I’m not quite sure how to start or even where a poem may end. Though the writing process often gets the better of me, I welcome the taste of language and the ability to share it with others. One’s imagination is always on the brink of something else. There’s an old saying that there’s never anybody around when you wrestle with an angel. Nonetheless, poets write because they have to…and the angels know it.
     It is rare that people actually go after the things they want to do and become in their lifetimes. Far too many wave back at their dreams. Through poetry I am able to passionately be on board with my wishes.

—Lonnie Black (1958-2016), prose piece originally published in Hartford Courant's Northeast Magazine.

public storage space

The prose poem’s great flaw is that it’s anything and all.

unbreakable

All good sentences naturally resist enjambment.

line limit

If the prose poem goes too far it’s because poetry is so held back by the tether of the line.

no turning point

Prose poet: one whose lines run but won’t turn.

lapsed lines

Your prose poems shouldn’t be your poems that simply lapsed their lines.

big box

A prose poem: big box o’ words.

exhausted enjambment

The prose poem’s ascendency coincided with the exhaustion of the enjambment as a resource for free verse.

by rights justify

A prose poem justifies itself by resorting to the right margin.

prose poem

Prose poem: A poem comfortable with the right margin.

poetry in its street clothes

Prose poem: The language of poetry in its street clothes.

prose poetry defined

prose poem: a poem that eschews the line in favor of the sentence.