>The prose / verse distinction is rather like the mind / body
>distinction--looked at from one perspective, the differences are
>irreconcilable; looked at from another perspective, the differences
>don't exist. Both perspectives--& positions between them--are useful,
>functional, depending on the context of the discussion or the problem
>being addressed. Is light a wave or a particle . . .
I quite agree, Joseph - but the edges seem to be becoming more and more
blurred, and most of the time I'm not sure how useful such distinctions
might be, since pursued to their exclusionary and logical ends, they
become nonsensical. What can a poem do that prose can't? What can prose
do that a poem can't? I'm not sure...
I am certainly writing more and more prose - of my four current projects,
three are long prose works of (very) different kinds - and as for my
poetry, the lines are getting longer and longer - seeking maybe more
amplitude - but I still make a distinction still between poem and prose,
which nevertheless might be completely arbitrary.
best
Alison
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