P is for Prose

By Rena J. Traxel

P is for prose.  Before the written word poems were passed down orally. Once poems hit the pages, poets started to think about line breaks.

What is a prose poem?  Prose poems lack line breaks, but “maintains a poetic quality, often utilizing techniques common to poetry, such as fragmentation, compression, repetition, and rhyme. The prose poem can range in length from a few lines to several pages long, and it may explore a limitless array of styles and subjects” (http://poets.org).

Here is a prose poem I wrote about a month ago as part of exercise for class. Writing in this form is not something I like. I think line breaks are a lot of fun so I re-wrote the poem using lines breaks.  

Raggedy Ann: red hair, painted nose, smiling face, open eyes. She’s dressed in old-fashioned handmade clothes — dress, apron, pantaloons. I picked her from a garbage dump, brought her home, cleaned her up. She’s perched on a shelf above my desk. Watching over me. A child’s toy. A toy I never had.

Raggedy Ann

Perched on shelf above my desk–

red hair,

painted nose,

smiling face,

open eyes. 

She’s dressed in old-fashioned handmade clothes–

dress,

apron,

pantaloons.

I picked her from a garbage dump–

brought her home

cleaned her up.

Perched on shelf above my desk–

A child’s toy.

A toy I never had.

Do you see the difference? They both sound the same, but do not look the same. The second poem would be considered free verse. I prefer line breaks, but I also prefer to use punctuation in my poems. These are choices every poet must make. If a prose poem is to be seen on the page, I would recommend using punctuation or risk having a poem that looks like one long run on sentence. 

Challenge

--Today I want you to play with form (think about lines breaks and punctuation). Try writing a prose poem using a photo that inspires you. Or

--Use my photo of Raggedy and write a poem.

Resources

--The Prose Poem

--Punctuation in Poetry

 If you liked this post please let others know. Tomorrow, Ishta Mercurio will be joining us to talk about query letters. I hope you come back for that.