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Prose Poetry – A Blended Form of Literature
This is rewritten from an article I wrote almost three years ago for the Art of Criticism Newsletter. It’s something that I still get asked about quite a bit, so I thought I’d update this and help everyone understand this incredible type of writing.
“Just as black humor straddles the fine line between comedy and tragedy, so the prose poem plants one foot in prose, the other in poetry, both heels resting precariously on banana peels.” - Peter Johnson
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Have you ever read a piece or paragraph in a story or an article that captured a moment in time? Have you thought to yourself, “this is so poetic,” and yet it was not a piece of poetry? Have you ever seen a piece of literature that was written as prose, yet took on the form of poetry as you read through it? Then you have stumbled on something called poetic prose or prose poetry.
The history of this form is quite interesting. It is something that began in the early nineteenth century in countries such as France and Russia. It caught on shortly after in America but was considered a controversial form of literature. The genre had a strong opponent in T.S. Elliot as he said that you could not mix prose with the strict rhythm and meter of poetry. Many disagreed with him, but prose poetry died down some for awhile after this. In the 1950’s, popular authors such as Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsburg revived the literary form. Russell Edson worked primarily with prose poetry, and eventually he won the Nobel Prize for his 1989 collection called The World Doesn't End.
Since the 1980’s, prose poetry has continued to increase in popularity. There are groups, journals, and websites all devoted to this awesome blending of literature. Our own 🌑 Darleen - QoD  runs a contest primarily geared to this form for three months in the summer.
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Before we can get into what prose poetry is and how to write it, we must break down the two genres from which it comes. First, let’s talk about a definition of poetry. Dictionary.com says that poetry is the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts; and a literary work in metrical form; verse. The most important parts of this definition are that it is a rhythmical composition and it has a metrical form. I would add to this definition that poetry is often full of figurative language such as the usage of metaphors, personification, and simile. Poetry does not have to have a beginning, middle, and end like a story. It doesn’t need to state facts like an article. However, it can contain those elements if the author wishes. Poetry often describes a moment in time or just describes how someone is feeling like the piece below that I wrote some time ago.
In darkness of night,
I sit. Without light,
pondering profound questions.
Why do I sit? I perceive
I don't dare sleep.
It's not an option.
Dreams haunt my mind.
I can't lie down. I sit.
Is it just hallucinations?
Or, is it real?
Does it feel?
Can it breathe?
The mist of it swirls.
I sit. Eyes wide, watching,
the shadowy abstractions.
Then- when the dark changes...
I sit. The light now rearranges.
Gone are the nightly demonstrations.
This is a free verse poem that I wrote a while back. I’ll be using it as an example throughout this essay. Look at the things that make it poetry. There are rhymes, even though it’s free verse, and there is no specific meter count. However, there is a definite flow. Look at the repetition of the phrase “I sit”. This gives it a poetic feel. Also, the fourth verse changes, but look at it closely. After the word “or,” the lines have a three syllable count with a beat of short, short, long. These elements all serve to make this a written piece of poetry.
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Now let’s go in the opposite direction and look at the meaning of prose. The main definition of prose is that it’s not poetry. If you write in prose, it can be fiction or non-fiction. Generally, it has a beginning, middle, and end. There is really no rhyming or special rhythm. Dictionary.com defines prose as “the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse; matter of fact, commonplace, or dull expression, quality, discourse, etc.”
Take the poem I wrote above. How would this be written in prose?
Many nights I sit alone in the living room. I wait in the dark because I have insomnia. I often try to get moments of sleep in between my moments of being awake. I have weird dreams. I hear and see things and wonder if my house could be haunted. I’m ready for day and glad when it returns.
I’m pretty much saying the same thing here but in a much different way. It’s nice, and there is nothing wrong with writing prose, but poetry, to me, brings the moment in time to life.
So if the two forms of writing are so different, how can they be blended? Well, now it’s time to get to the fun part.
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Prose poetry is a blending of the two literary forms of prose and poetry. I have explained the difference between the two parts, but what about the blending? Wikipedia helps us to dive right into a great definition. “Prose poetry is poetry written in prose instead of using verse but preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects.”
When I originally wrote this article, I had the pleasure of sitting down to an interview with 🌑 Darleen - QoD about the contest she runs "Invalid Item" . She knew that the contest requirements were a hybrid of poetry and prose, but she didn’t realize there was actually a genre for this type of writing. I thought you might enjoy the interview we had.
Me: I'm glad to see a unique contest like "Invalid Item" because it makes people aware of a different kind of prose. What inspired you to start this contest?
Darleen: Well, I wanted to host some sort of dark short story contest along with my dark poetry contest, but there are plenty of horror and short story contests out there. I wanted to be different and unique. So I decided to combine my love of stories and poetry into a contest to try and open up the possibilities to a wider crowd and this is what I came up with!
Me: Have you ever heard of Prose Poetry? Don't look it up, but just off the top of your head, can you guess what it is? (Some also call it poetic prose.)
Darleen: I had heard of Prose Poetry but I didn't know the rules. I looked it up a while back before starting the contest and received different examples that didn't always match. Off the top of my head, I figure it as a more descriptive "overly-detailed" storytelling that can include poetic devices with no real form. It can't be written like poetry in verses, etc. But it must tell some sort of story.
Allow me to interject here. Darleen had everything correct about prose poetry except for her last line. It doesn’t necessarily need to tell a complete story. Just like poetry, it can just describe a moment in time. It can describe a glorious day at the beach, and it can talk about how abused you were as a child. It won’t have the rhythm of poetry, but it will have several other elements. Now back to the interview
Me: What are you looking for when judging for your contest?
Darleen: I'm looking for more details with a poetic feel to it. When describing a moment or a situation I want to feel lost in the narrator's thoughts and visions, the finer details of what they are experiencing. I don't want to know that she just sat on a beach watching the sunset, I want to feel the sand between her toes, the cool breeze of the ocean and the thoughts she's connecting with all of her senses at that very moment. When done correctly a mere moment can be turned into a long story that helps you experience that simple moment in great details.
Me: What is the one most important element, to you, that separates poetic prose from a short story?
Darleen: The devil's in the details. I love deep descriptions, use of simile, and metaphor used more often and deeply in poetic prose than in a short story. I think in poetic prose it's easier to turn a moment into something beautiful than it is in a short story that requires more of a beginning, middle, and end. In poetic prose, I can just tell you about how the breeze made me feel and it can beautiful, while in a short story it'd be boring.
Me: Do you have any other thoughts about this type of writing?
Darleen: I think there are many different possibilities in poetic prose. I was warned about "purists", not liking what I was doing, and I think it can be more confusing for those who are taught to write specific types of short stories since it usually is way more descriptive than what’s normally allowed, but I love all the different styles and types of writing that have been presented in my contest so far and I hope it encourages others to try something new and explore the combination of poetry and storytelling.
After reading this interview, my hope is that you will understand the need for this third type of literature. Even though you’ve been taught specifics with poetry and with short story writing, you can see that this hybrid of sorts is here and I think it’s important to bring it out in the open and make it a lot more noticeable.
So, let’s go back to the poem I shared earlier. It’s deep and full of emotion. Then, the conversion into prose made it lack the in-depth details and emotion found in the poem. Sure, it got in all the facts. You probably even understood what was happening, maybe just a bit more than just by the poem. I am going to take those two pieces. They are going to have some sweet lovin’ and make a baby which will immerge as the lovely prose poem.
Through the endless darkness of night, I sit. I wait without light, pondering profound questions. Why? I perceive that I don’t dare sleep, though I have no options. Insomnia pulls me into the snare. I close my eyes and dreams haunt my mind. I can’t lie down, and so I sit. Is it just hallucinations, or is it a haunting? Is it real? Does it feel? Can it breathe? I see the mist of it as it swirls around me. And I sit, eyes wide open… watching… those shadowy abstractions. As night turns to day, and the light rearranges, I still sit. Gone are my wild imaginations. Gone are the nightly demonstrations.
Can you see how this is more than a poem? Can you understand that it is more than prose? It uses some of the repetition and elegant flowing figurative language of poetry. There are some rhymes throughout.
I would like to leave you with one thought. Peter Johnson, the editor of The Prose Poem: an International Day had this to say about this literary love child…
“Just as black humor straddles the fine line between comedy and tragedy, so the prose poem plants one foot in prose, the other in poetry, both heels resting precariously on banana peels.”
I challenge you to try this type of writing whether you are a poet or short fiction. Try blending the concepts mentioned and maybe you can enter Darleen’s contest. She will be excited, and you will have the satisfaction of trying something new and exciting.
Until next time…. Live… Laugh… And write!
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I know this isn't a contest about prose poetry, but it's an interesting contest. I urge you to try it out.
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And now for some prose poetry examples:
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Poetry: November 16, 2016 Issue [#7972]
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