PWoF 2016 - Topic 07 - Sept. 28

[rayheinrich]

Sorry, had a pet emergency. Good news: Cat's going to be just fine. Bad news: Emergency vet cost $350



        PWoF 2016 - Topic 07 - Sept. 28


        Standard instructions:
       

         You should attempt to write a poem inspired by this topic -- not a derivative, literal
         interpretation of the topic.   Create a poem that reflects your own true self.
         
         --> Since the officious rules of PWoF 2016 stipulate that you can submit more than
         one poem; may I suggest, if the fit strikes you, that you include, after your major work,
         a second poem consisting of a bit of transient doggerel, a limerick, or a trenchant
         end-rhyming nonsense poem that somehow reflects the intention of this topic.
         
         (And for anyone who's a bit uncertain about starting out here: Ignore my bullshite and
         just string some words together (that's what everybody else is doing ).  
       

        Topic 7:
       

Robert Frost once remarked: "Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down."
Years later Brigitte Oleschinski, a free verse poet, disagreed: "I think Frost's tennis analogy
is a bit off; it's not that the net's lowered, it's that the ball's missing."

So where does prose-poetry fit into either of those analogies?  Is writing prose-poetry like playing
with the net part way down, or is it like playing without rackets? Or maybe prose poetry is video
tennis; it exists in your head, not in your hand. Or maybe it doesn't exist at all, it's just poetic prose
or de-formatted poetry. Or maybe it's the historically original form of free verse and the stuff we
think of as free verse now-a-days is a mixture of it and formal verse?

But luckily, we don't have to worry about any of that.  Yes, the topic today is to write a prose poem
(your definition); but if you don't think it exists, you're home free.  

For the rest of us, here's the topic:

Write a prose poem about images that won't go away, dreams that won't stop:
Like a tiger's mouth inches away from your face - something truly terrifying -
where you were sure you would die or be crippled, disfigured, ruined in some way...
Or just write about a cute kitten.
Or write about a cute kitten that turns into a tiger and rips your face off.
Or a tiger that turns into a kitten and pees in your lap.

And, if you're interested, you'll find a good overview of prose poetry right here.