You know what I mean by a 'prose poem', don't you?

Prose poetry: a piece of writing in prose having obvious poetic qualities, including intensity, compactness, prominent rhythms, and imagery.

First thing that came up on Google.

Good enough. Have you ever read a prose poem? Sure you have. Remember that one about Santa Claus? From The Sun, that inventor of hoaxes?

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
The New York Sun, 21 September, 1897.

Some speeches read like prose poems:

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln, 19 November 1863

Prose poems show up in the unlikeliest places. They can be about dearly held ideas, like Santa Claus (yeah, right, if you're into commercialism) or democracy. However, they are often about more frivolous subjects, like golf, baseball, chocolate, or even sneakers.

It was because they felt the way it feels every summer when you take off your shoes for the first time and run in the grass. They felt like it feels sticking your feet out of the hot covers in wintertime to let the cold wind from the open window blow on them suddenly and you let them stay out a long time until you pull them back in under the covers again to feel them, like packed snow. The tennis shoes felt like it always feels the first time every year wading in the slow waters of the creek and seeing your feet below, half an inch further downstream, with refraction, than the real part of you above water.

Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine.

What makes writing a prose poem? Its 'poetic' quality. Its rhythm. Its tendency to elevate the subject. Do we do this on h2g2? Sure we do.

Thoughts of brothers lost. Chances to ride together no more. Some wishing they hadn't made excuses to ride with us that one last time, never to be repeated. Brothers mourned, but remembered doing what they loved most. The ride was, and is, all.

Time passes for us all. One day, hopefully not too soon, time will give us all the only real reason, the only undisputed excuse not to wheel the bike out, get togged up and ride. When that day comes and the reaper calls, then I may stop. Become another ghost name on a brother's jacket.

FWR, Last week.

All of us, on occasion.

What's the real trick to prose poetry? Think beyond your subject. What are sneakers really about? They're about youth. And freedom. And endless summer. What's Santa Claus really about? Wonder. Magic. Gift-giving. What are motorbikes about? Freedom again. Movement. Exploration. Friendship. You get the idea.

So let's try a prose poem challenge, shall we? Pick the lamest subject you can think of: Starbucks coffee. Donald Trump. Standing in line at Tesco's (or wherever). Reality TV. Corn dogs. You name it. Prose-ify it. Exalt it. Wax sentimental over it. Give us a thrill over it.

No fair writing real poetry, now. No rhymes. No jagged lines. Just a paragraph or two (or three). Strut your stuff and prove that, no matter how dumb the subject, your prose is equal to the task.

Sure, I'm trolling for copy here. But I'm also looking forward to what you come up with.

Writing Right with Dmitri Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

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