I'd Like to Ask You A Question

[Colm Roe]

If you remove a poem's line breaks and it reads like prose...chances are it's prose. If there isn't some separation between them do we know what we are?


'You know how, after you've lived someplace for about seven years and got the place fixed up just the way you want it, including the right coffee pot on your granite counter-top and flowers blooming furiously in the yard, not a weed in sight and the bathroom towels and washcloths all match, even your toothbrushes are color coordinated and suddenly you say: My life has lost its meaning, and now that vintage chenille bedspread doesn't matter anymore.' (from indar's poem)

If you remove
a poem's line breaks
and
it reads like prose...
chances are
it's prose.

If there isn't
some separation between them
do we know
what we are?

Just saying 
 

[indar]

You know how, after you've lived someplace for about seven years and got the place fixed up just the way you want it, including the right coffee pot on your granite counter-top and flowers blooming furiously in the yard, not a weed in sight and the bathroom towels and washcloths all match, even your toothbrushes are color coordinated and suddenly you say: My life has lost its meaning, and now that vintage chenille bedspread doesn't matter anymore'

Hey! That would make a great poem! 

[Tracy Mitchell]

Fascinating, Colm -- a very instructive exercise.

What do you take from it? What should we take from it?

Is there a line between prose and poetry? How important is it to find and define that line?

Just asking.

T

[indar]

Jude Nutter, who teaches some really popular poetry classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis does an occasional workshop in which students arrange newspaper articles in line breaks---and call it poetry

[Colm Roe]

Fascinating, Colm -- a very instructive exercise.

What do you take from it? What should we take from it?

Is there a line between prose and poetry? How important is it to find and define that line?

Just asking.

T

On MWC it was said by a few people that we can't call ourselves poets. We can't just write a few pieces of shite that rhyme (or not) and claim the title of poet. Other people have to consider us to be poets! Now, how many people, and how qualified they have to be was never discussed. 
To answer your question T there are no lines. But it is important to, in some way, sense the difference between them.
For me, good poetry is a collection of aesthetically pleasing clues, with various degrees of complexity. Always (or mostly) written to be read (not listened to)
I like the idea of having to put some effort into the few short lines a poet has put great effort into. 
There can be a subtle difference between poetry and prose...but that line can only ever be defined by the reader.
And if the reader is a poet who gave him the title?
Moot, moot, moot 

 

[indar]

The one on the facing page, however, who looks at me over her bare shoulder, cannot hide the shadow of annoyance in her brow. You have interrupted me, she seems to be saying, with your coughing and your loud music. Now leave me alone; let me finish whatever it was I was doing in my organza-trimmed whisperweight camisole with keyhole closure and a point d'espirit mesh back

The above is a stanza in a poem that goes on in this vein for 4 pages. I eliminated the line breaks. The title is "Victoria's Secret" and it is by one of my most favorite poet's Billy Collin's a past Poet Laureate. (will they arrest me for plagiarism?)

https://omg.blog/victorias_secret_the_p ... z5bH4mX2XX

[Dave]

Is it good, call it what you will. Is it not, who cares or distract people with discussion. Write with clear headed conviction that will suffice for a start.

[indar]

AMEN Brother!

[Colm Roe]

The one on the facing page, however, who looks at me over her bare shoulder, cannot hide the shadow of annoyance in her brow. You have interrupted me, she seems to be saying, with your coughing and your loud music. Now leave me alone; let me finish whatever it was I was doing in my organza-trimmed whisperweight camisole with keyhole closure and a point d'espirit mesh back

If this was recited it could be made to sound like a poem...but it reads like prose to me.

[Tim J Brennan]

Billy Collins can pretty much write whatever he wants and can live through whatever anyone else calls it.

Actually, anyone can. .    Just my take.