JUMP TO THE PROSE POEM EXAMPLES
The first poetic form I fell in love with was the prose poem. I immediately admired its defiance of the line. As Charlotte Runcie says, “[Prose poems] make a point of searching for where the definable limits of poetry might be before stepping deliberately over them.”
This rebellion is part of the history of the form. In an introduction to a prose poem writing prompt published at the Poetry Foundation, Wendy Chen writes, “In both its form and its focus on representing modernity, prose poetry served as expression of resistance and rebellion against the past.”
Another aspect of prose poems I really dig is their Trojan Horse quality: how they appear unassuming and shy (just a paragraph! nothing to see here!) but actually hide inside much of the same weaponry that makes lineated poetry such a force. As James Tate is credited with saying, “You look at it and you say, ‘Why I thought I was just reading a paragraph or two, but, by golly, methinks I glimpsed a little sliver of eternity’.”
The prose poems that delight me most have these things in common:
- really tight language (the paragraph form isn’t an excuse for bloat or laziness)
- strong images, metaphors and other poetic devices, like sound or repetition
- surprise and momentum — even without the tension of the line
- a voice that’s compelling or endearing (BONUS points if it’s a little weird)
The list of prose poem examples I’ve put together reflects these qualities. But even though I’m a prose poem super fan, I’m not an expert, so let’s hear what others have to say.
What Is a Prose Poem?
The Academy of American Poets offers a simple definition: “The prose poem essentially appears as prose but reads like poetry.” It goes on to say, “While it lacks the line breaks associated with poetry, the prose poem maintains a poetic quality, often utilizing techniques common to poetry, such as fragmentation, compression, repetition and rhyme.” David Lehman puts it this way: He says prose poems use “the means of prose toward the ends of poetry,”
For some people, prose poems beg the question, “Is it a poem?” While I loathe that question, it can arise out of the hybrid-like quality of this form: It has elements of both prose and poetry.
In a Lit Hub article, for example, Paul Hetherington and Cassandra Atherton write, “Prose poetry understands prose’s conventions and its constituent parts—its sentences and paragraphs—while also being conspicuously a form of poetry, and sometimes even lyrical in its inflections. … Such a poem combines and condenses the robust qualities of good prose with the figurative features of much lineated lyric poetry.”
So are prose poems the best of both worlds — poetry and prose? or a third thing all their own? Runcie writes, “The real trick, the quadruple somersault flying trapeze that [prose] poets are attempting, is to write something that is not poetry, not prose, and somehow more expressive than both, making a case for its own discrete identity and power.”
Want to learn more? Here’s the Wikipedia entry on prose poetry and an overview of the form written as the introduction to a Beltway Poetry Quarterly issue dedicated to prose poetry.
More Than 50 Prose Poem Examples
- zoo/m/enagerie by Beth Bachmann
- Pando Aspen Clone by Jacqueline Balderrama
- Ghosts (Homage to Burial) by Emily Berry
- February by Tamiko Beyer
- Everyone Has an Old Neighborhood They Drift Back to in Dreams by Mary Biddinger
- Late by CooXooEii Black
- How to Tell the Difference Between a Raven and a Crow by Bethany Brengan
- Sculpture Study #1 by Taylor Byas
- The Pigs (excerpt) by Tim Carter
- Agnes Martin, Fiesta, 1985 by Victoria Chang
- Chernobyl Necklace by Teresa Mei Chuc
- I Think of That Sopranos Episode Where Time Is a Horse, by Ja’net Danielo
- It’s hard to convince yourself that Gertrude Stein matters when there are people od’ing next to the trashcan at Circle K by Rosemarie Dombrowski
- The Gir- That Lost Its L by Morrow Dowdle
- Backstage at the Cairo Opera House by Sara Elkamel
- Cliché by William Erikson
- Vessels by Scott Ferry
- Throwing Children by Ross Gay
- Mothered Mothers by Monica Gomery
- Whirlwind by Beth Gordon
- Harm by Hillary Gravendyk
- On Our Backs Looking Up by Jane-Henry Gray
- A Story About the Body by Robert Hass
- Responsible Life Forms by Stella Hayes
- Self-Portrait as the Cornfields by Carolina Hotchandani
- To Stand at the Precipice Alone and Repeat What Is Whispered (excerpt) by Aisha Sasha John
- On Working Remotely & No Longer Commuting with Chronic Pain by Camisha L. Jones
- Color Therapy for Beginners by Koss
- Box-Death Hollow Wilderness, UT by Emily Lawson
- Under the Covers by Olivia Lee
- Places with Terrible Wi-Fi by J. Estanislao Lopez
- The Room Where Hearts Are Stored (2nd poem on the page) by Kathleen McGookey
- Half Step by Megan Merchant
- Suburban Dusk by Bert Meyers
- Janis Joplin’s Ghost and I Shelter Before the Texas Twister by Elizabeth Muscari
- In the Union by Rachel Neve-Midbar
- A Shirt by Adeline Navarro
- Begin Again by January G. O’Neil
- April kōwhai by Nina Mingya Powles
- A Refutation by Benjamin Paloff
- Reflection, But Shuffled by Kimberly Ramos
- apocalypse (22.a) by Anastacia-Renee
- a force is a push or a pull (5.8 million puerto ricans in america) by Giovannai Rosa
- Diagnosis {Winter} by Adrie Rose
- Scientists Released the First Picture of a Black Hole & by Dennison Ty Schultz
- Poetry by Richard Siken
- Prose Poem by Tom Snarsky
- The Practice Apartment by Clancy Tripp
- Helen Speaks by Nikki Ummel
- This Is the Story by Donna Vorreyer
- When I Watched My Mother Paint by Kelly Weber
- Guernica II by Ann Weil
I’m happy to continue adding to this collection of prose poems. Got a fave that I’ve missed? Let me know, and I’ll take a look. Also, be sure to check out other popular lists published at this blog:
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