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Poetry - serious

As I have RUINED the previous thread with my less-than-serious comments and TN wanted a PROPER thread this is a new one!

TN said: I thought that maybe it was time to have a Poetry thread for all things... well, poetry. 

This might include competitions, publications, questions, opinions, examples, or anything else poetry-related.

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Comments

  • TN said:                                            
    I am going to start with a bugbear of mine: 

    21st century poetry which uses archaic language

    I don't know why it riles me so much, but I feel angry when poetry contains 'thee', 'thou' or 'thy' (often used incorrectly, by the way). 'O' is another, or when the verb and subject order are swapped a la Shakespeare.

    Just, no.

    I am glad to have got that off my chest.
  • Liz said:

    Oh, I agree. You won't find any published by a publisher that contains archaic language simply because someone 'thinks it's right'. 

    Another bugbear:

    'Poets' that change the order of sentences to fulfil rhythm or rhyme requirements. If you can't get it right, you're not a poet. If you can't say what you want within the structure YOU have given yourself, find another or say it in a different way or don't say it all.

    Unless of course it's to make a point. 

  • I would like to know how to define a prose poem. I read one recently that read like flash fiction to me. What makes it one thing rather than the other?
  • Rhythm and metaphors and lyrical descriptions. But it's not broken into verses per se. However it is poetic.

    If it read like flash fiction them it was probably not prose poetry, it was someone thinking they were writing prose poetry. It should have flowed, and flash fiction generally does not, as the word count is so tight all the metaphor and alliteration and lyrical stuff is simply not there. 
  • edited February 2019

    A lot of flash is very lyrical and flowy. This particular poem won a prose poem competition - I will see if I can find it.

    Edit: Nope.

    I saw it on Twitter. I do think there is a continuum, though, where narrative prose poetry meets lyrical flash. Don't suppose it matters!

  • LizLiz
    edited February 2019
    Flash which is longer than the the 10, 20, words then? If it won it must have been... I did write a poem in prose the other day actually but might decide to to break it into lines as it goes into lines quite easily. Of course, it wasn't a story with beginning middle and end but it was... oh, here it is. But I'll have to delete it later as it's going in the new book... possibly. 

     


  • Gorgeous, Liz!
  • That is beautiful.

    Flash is usually much longer than 10-20 words. Can be up to 1000 but is more usually 100-500 words. It also doesn't have to have a traditional story structure.

  • Ah. And thank you.
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