I don’t think I’ll ever forget the writing conference I
attended (quite a few years back now) where an editor read aloud a page of my
work then made a rather sharp comment about being “careful about the difference
between poetry and split line prose.” Truth? It gutted me. I went back to my work
and tried to figure out a way to weed out the split line prose. I reviewed my favorite poetry collections…checked
all the poems magnetized to my refrigerator…reread favorite verse
novels by Sharon Creech, Jacqueline Woodson, Sonya Sones, Ellen Hopkins,
Caroline Starr Rose, Guadalupe Garcia McCall…delved into my beloved Paul Fussel’s
POETIC METER & POETIC FORM for the zillionth time…
Here’s what I
discovered.
There’s split-line prose in a great deal of poetry. And LOTS
of it in verse novels. Because, to build an entire novel, you may want the reader to be able to hold onto plot, syntax. That requires the incorporation of prose elements. THE ART LIES IN…
where you choose to break each line
creating subtle internal rhymes and motifs, and sometimes even poems within poems (see Hopkins’ work)
the juxtaposition of abstract verses with strong, linear text
choosing only the best words, unobstructed by grammar traditions but constricted by holding onto the verse format, to get close to the bone--to depict raw, visceral emotion
using the freedom and flexibility of the verse structure to reflect shape, movement, music, the act of reading, and other abstract creative notions through form
It’s funny. I think of myself as both a POET and NOT-A-POET.
I do not know whether this is because I am afraid to commit; because I’m really not
sure; because I fear I won’t be fully accepted by either more definitive poets or
more traditional novelists; or because I am happy in this nether-space called VERSE NOVELIST—it’s where I
sing.
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