Martin Walker wrote in part on 5/14:
>"Verse turns to verse, reinstates itself. Prose goes straight
>on to the end of its paragraph." (from the "Notes on notation" at the
>beginning of _Ground Work: Before the War_, Robert Duncan.

I think Martin's quote by Duncan to be very keen to the point in defining
poetry VS prose. The dilemma with defining the prose-poem is that we have no
reference point to form a definition because the prose-poem uses aspects of
both poetry and prose. Perhaps at best I can say a prose-poem is creative
writing, and I say 'creative writing' in the best sense. A writing that
exhibits the compression and charge of poetic language while abandoning the
conventions of lineation for the freedom of prose breath or longer rhythm
while not quite embracing the conventions of prose (plot, story, sense of
essay, journalism, etc.), that is, being sufficient unto itself to convey
its charge...creative writing (coloring outside the lines of a child's
coloring book with a vision). The struggle to define may ultimately be less
interesting than writing/reading prose-poems!

"Sway is built into skyscrapers, since it is natural to trees. It is
completely straightforward. On occasion I've transferred my restlessness,
the sense of necessity, to the vehicle itself, and I feel like a book, a
person on paper, I will continue."
p. 76, MY LIFE, Lyn Hejinian

best
:fp

***************
Frank Parker
[log in to unmask]
http://now.at/frankshome


----- Original Message -----
From: "Clifford Duffy" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2001 12:25 AM
Subject: Re: Prose poem


> I find that the point you are making here is quite interesting. And
useful
> and requires some reflection; the mind body thing and the verse prose
thing
> andthe wave particle thing; perhaps its best to see them as all being
merely
> various ways of seeing the figure and ground, the tweedledee and
tweedledum,
> the shem and shaun, the cain and able, the greek and jew the body and soul
,
> the female and male the ying and yang and so on: its not a matter for
> contradiction but one of levels and placement and relation; I see no
> necessary exclusion of one to the other; its a leaves of grass thing;
parts
> of the parsing literary machine; plateaus, the connections of various
parts
> and verses and adveses and reverses, the works of the word in regree
> digress; a detour of jazz; of improvization; etc.
>
> ---
> >From: Joseph Duemer <[log in to unmask]>
> >Reply-To: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry
and
> > poetics <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: Prose poem
> >Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 09:14:42 +1200
> >
> >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 . . .
> >
> >jd
> >________________________
> >Joseph Duemer
> >School of Liberal Arts-5750
> >Clarkson University
> >(On leave 2000 - 2001)
> >Doan Thi Hanh Guesthouse
> >172 Pho Ngoc Ha So cu 4
> >Ba Dinh - Hanoi, Viet Nam
> >[log in to unmask]
> >________________________
>
>
> Beauty has no other origin than the singular wound, different in every
case,
> hidden or visible, which each man bears within himself, which he
preserves,
> and into which he withdraws when he wants to leave the world for a
temporary
> but authentic solitude....[A]rt seems to me determined to discover this
> secret wound in each being and even in each thing....Jean Genet
> My wound existed before me, I was born to embody it.
> Joe Bousquet
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.
>