Mixing Poetry with Prose
In writing modern, or contemporary verse it is easy for anyone to make fun of, or point out what they feel is obscure to their eyes in poetry, as it can be in any writing I suppose, but verse seems to get its share of pro and con, in more than sufficiently amounts, normally attacked, mostly by those not all that interested in verse in the first place. I am not about to turn this writing into some kind of account, but I do want to say a few words on this issue. Some modern poetry is what I call defeatist, grant you, and perhaps too fantastic, and too abstract, or too unreal or perhaps too eccentric–beyond the psychological reality of mans mind. I try not to go in that direction, but I do like plays and prose mixed with poetry, a good narrative in poetry is real life at its highest expressions. And produce good ideas in verse. This freedom I use, and others have, is not new, it was used by Homer, and even the poem of Gilgamish, have threads of this mixture; Shakespeare does it quite well also.
Yes, it is obvious that poetry and prose are different. Prose can flow actually better, free from poetic hang-ups; Poetry on the other hand seems to have more solid points to it, and is slower to read usually, and write of course. In prose you can bring up issues, or matters in the moment, in poetry, you are working on moving the individual, emotionally, more so than in thinking. Nowadays, people have a hard time understanding modern poetry, in comparison to thousands of years ago. Perhaps we lost the plot, theme and insight into much of the story in poetry, and need to make adjustments, and so in prose mixed with poetry we can do that, as long as we remember the poetic value resides in the solid elements it brings.
Commentary on Poetry and Prose: 10/28/2006