When it comes to poetry – free verse poetry – there is a thin line to tread between poetry and prose.
This
is not
poetry.
You could argue it is poetry. You could say it’s some sort of artistic statement. That’s the annoying thing about poetry. However, there are entirely too many people who consider themselves poets because they put strange line breaks in prose that reads just like prose when the line breaks aren’t there. An example:
You could argue
it is poetry.
You could say
it’s some sort of
artistic
statement.
That’s
the annoying thing about poetry.
Don’t. Just don’t do that. If you can remove the line breaks and it reads like prose, it is prose.
Yes, there is such a thing as prose poetry, but even prose poetry reads slightly different than regular prose. It’s closer to the prose line than any other poetry is/should be, but it’s still poetry in that it doesn’t read like regular prose.
Yes, I’m repeating myself, but I’ve seen this happen entirely too many times.
You don’t have to rhyme, but you do have to write poetry if you’re a poet.
#1 by phill on August 24, 2010 - 3.15 pm
Heh, I totally agree with this, mainly because I’m guilty of it myself. I try and write poetry, I really do! But it always comes out as prose with linebreaks ;P
#2 by JM on August 25, 2010 - 6.31 pm
Oh, I have a lot of the same problem when I try writing poetry. I think it turned into a pet peeve, though, when I started critiquing poetry on a writer’s forum. When you see every second person doing it…