clark

you can read it anyway you want but for me it resonates.....................cool man

It resonates with me too, Clark. But I am a poet so would definitely agree. Don't know about non-poets...........

Thanks Esc, but I haven't yet fully exposed the level of my ignorance__what IS a 'blog'? I wrote that confession in blue four months ago and just got back to it now. This Bear of Little Brain has finally figgered out that a Blog is sort of a personal little thing on your own 'page' where you chat a bit about. . .whatever. Good stuff. Got it. The chat is on. Thanks, Esc, again, and thanks for your comment Neetu. I think non-poets would probably scratch their heads and mumble, what ARE these pansies goin' on about. . .?'

Sick of the Prose/Poetry Whine

If I now finally understand the Blog bit, this is the place to vent, presumably on a topic relevant to writing? well, I'm fed-up to HERE with the ongoing Is It Poetry or Not bleat. We have so many forms jostling for attention right now as 'poetry' that we should give up this annoying search for 'definitions' and just get on with our work. If 'definitions' prove of some value to further the work, they will emerge. In past eras, literary dictators could impose their will on writers--Dr. Johnson's imperious judgments were regarded by most 18th-century writers as only marginally less compelling than the Voice of God--but now we 'recognize' Form and Voice almost as though it comes from the skin through USE, rather than prescription.

I came to this tentative conclusion from a lifelong fascination with Imagism and, more specifically and recently, from watching nd hearing KATE TEMPEST recite, without notes, a 25-minute poem on YouTube. Now, had she written it and memorized it? Amazing feat. Or had she written parts of it, had an outline in mind for the rest, and just made it up on her feet? Or did she make up the whole damn thing on her feet, in front of her audience? Of course, it doesn't matter: the poem is all. But look to her style--a significant component of her presentation is VERY prosy and conversational, like we were on her porch, chatting about society and childhood and relevance and failures and triumphs and like that there. But the overall intangible EFFECT is poetic. Intriguing...…………….need I care WHY?

I am amused that you are sick of people questioning whether something is poetry when I approach my prose in the converse way by wondering whether it is too poetic at times, but I agree that if it has the desired impact it doesn't actually matter how one categorises it.

Years ago I posted a fragment of prose from my novel in the poetry thread asking whether it could be regarded as poetry or at least poetic, but nobody responded at the time. It's HERE. I think that in my writing I often seek to trigger subliminal associations in the reader's mind that add an extra dimension to it. Maybe this is where the parallel with poetry arises, that there is potentially more impact than the meaning of the words alone imparts. In that sense we are trying to share the deeper chemistry of our own thoughts with our readers I suppose.

I have always claimed that my prose is my poetry, so clearly don't care much about the distinction myself.