Hi Frank,
H'm, "close to prose..."
I sort of feel the whole piece could also be set out without lines, so it
flows through in sentences and has paragraph breaks. If that were how it
were presented it "might" lose some of the pauses created by the line breaks
- but I was thinking it would probably still give the reader opportunity to
get into what you were writing about. It's got commas, it has a flowing
style... it's got a more natural, easy natured style than an essay, or a
report, or an article for a magazine or a newspaper.
And I think you'd be a good writer of short pieces of fiction, a good
short-story writer, too. There's a narrative quality to your work. I can
hear different voices (so dialogue may appear and read easily as well). And
I sometimes wonder if the boundaries between "prose" and "poetry" are (and
need to be) blurred... I often find I write pieces I can only call poems -
they usually have lines that don't reach right across the page. And then
there's other things that I guess I have to call short-pieces-of-fiction, or
prose - often where the lines sort of flow on and on and don't want to break
themselves up (though I don't know if I could call them stories). Sometimes,
later on, I've found one of the prose bits useful in helping me sort out a
poem (snaffling a phrase or two and transplanting!). And sometimes I've come
across a paragraph in a story or novel and thought "I bet that was first
written as a poem!"
I had a schoolfriend whose mum always made jelly in jelly-moulds, alloy
shapes with flutings and indentations, whereas my mum just made jelly in a
simple bowl. But the jelly came from identical packets - and we debated over
which tasted better! I guess words and phrases can get poured into different
shapes.
Bob
>From: Frank Faust <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Sub - The Dan O'Connell Presents ... - Bob
>Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 09:39:11 +1000
>
>Howdy Bob,
>
>Thanks for reading and commenting on this. Very glad you enjoyed and found
>merit in the work. I also thought that it might be useful as a reflective
>thing - it's actually a little bit traumatising to do a feature (in the
>nicest way of course) if you take it seriously and I felt that penning some
>of that process and experience could only be a good thing.
>
>Tell me, is it close to prose because of length, or from some style
>element?
>I'm genuinely curious, because apart from realising almost as soon as I
>started that it would be a long piece, with some natural breaks for
>sequencing and to stay in control, I wrote it in the same way as I do all
>other pieces. The boundary issue is a genuine curiosity to me. Some folk
>have suggested I should get into novel-writing, I think because I am fairly
>prolific, but I don't believe I could translate myself from verse format to
>prose - so again, I'm interested in thoughts around the edges of this.
>
>Cheers and thanks,
>
>Frank
>
>
> > Hi Frank,
> > I found this a delight to read. The kind of reflective piece I think
>it's
> > important for poets to come across - so thanks for referring us to it!
>It's
> > got "Frank" hallmarked into it - gentle, sensitive, and saying clearly
>what
> > matters! And even though "This is Frank talking" I can hear what others
>have
> > sometimes said, things I wish I'd done, wish I'd sometimes said...
> > I enjoyed it.
> > I also like the way it treads so lightly on the boundary between poetry
>and
> > prose.
> > Thanks,
> > Bob
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >From: Frank Faust <[log in to unmask]>
> > >Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
> > >To: [log in to unmask]
> > >Subject: Sub - The Dan O'Connell Presents ...
> > >Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 11:02:33 +1000
> > >
> > >Dear all,
> > >
> > >this won't be of interest to everyone, but I've written an account (a
>very
> > >long account) of a recent experience as a featured reader at a poetry
> > >venue. I won't post it here due to size and the risk of boring all to
> > >tears, but if anyone is interested, the link to the piece is as
>follows:
> > >
> >
> >http://www.talesoffaust.com/public/ladies_and_gentlemen_the_Dan_Oconnell_pr
>esents.html
> > >
> > >As always, I'd be delighted to receive some feedback, but understand if
>it
> > >is too long or boring to be bothered with.
> > >
> > >Cheers,
> > >
> > >Frank
> >
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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