Thoughts blur one into the other, like vibrant inks on wet paper, enticing my imagination to drift aimlessly hither and yon, grasping at phantoms and I am at a loss as to how they may be captured in words. Undefined, these hover on the outskirts of my awareness, misty, mocking my underlying need to communicate. How do I prove to myself I am not the only inhabitant in this eerie world of Not-Quite-Here, on days like today, when my thoughts take on the jumbled aspect of coloured pieces in a kaleidoscope, but refuse to coalesce into coherent shapes, or patterns?
In Kerry's Wednesday Challenge for Toads, she asked us to write a 'prose poem' - I think I have painted one! ♥
You see, I'm struggling here. This is a perfectly valid piece of prose but break it up into lines and it becomes a perfectly valid poem. Is that the only difference between poetry and prose?
ReplyDelete(Content-wise, its top notch, as usual)
Peter -
ReplyDeleteNot in my book – breaking prose into lines does NOT make it a poem – it will remain poetic prose to its, or my, dying day !
I’m not a real admirer of ‘free verse’, you see, for so few people seem to consider either their choice of words, or the order in which they write them. They gaily let them dribble down the page, straight from pen to paper – often bypassing brain altogether!
If aspiring writers understand rules of form, rhythm, meter, plus language, grammar and punctuation then there is a possibility they might produce free verse which actually has poetic content. But the constraints of having to follow a form at least makes for a closer scrutiny of the words and phrases that arrive on the paper- or screen!
Although I use a lot of rhyme, I do like blank verse, with all the delights of iambic pentameter, but poetic ’feet’ of stressed, unstressed syllables which delight in names like Anapaest, Dactyl, Amphibrach etc, etc to many free verse poets are an unknown quantity entirely – their writing can lack flow/rhythm because of this missing knowledge…
Shall I get off of my high horse now? LOL
I am at a loss as to how they may be captured in words...
ReplyDeleteI think that as artists who deal in the medium of the written word, we have all felt this pressure. This is a fine piece of poetic prose.
Yes, Jinksy you have painted a prose poem with your words....lovely writing as always! :-)
ReplyDeleteBoy have I had days like this!! Good one!
ReplyDeleteHugs
SueAnn
These moments occur more as the years roll by.
ReplyDeleteSo true, Jinksy. So very, very true. Thank you.
ReplyDelete"Thoughts blur one into the other, like vibrant inks on wet paper" - I love that! :-)
ReplyDeleteLovely piece- your art is deffo opening up something wonderful in your writing:)
ReplyDeleteIndeed we have days like these not-quite-here days ~
ReplyDeleteHappy weekend ~
I agree with Jinksy. Blogland is stuffed full of prose, often very indifferent prose, chopped up into lines that don't go all the way across the page so it looks like poetry. Sometimes with enormous spaces between the lines to make up in appearance what it lacks in poetry and usually set out in the execrable 'centered' text to impress the reader with the writer's vast skills in using this horrible feature. When did you last see a printed book of poetry set out in 'wander down the page centered text'
ReplyDelete