Discussion → Prose Poetry and Microfiction

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    Gloria Garfunkel
    Jul 30, 06:23am

    Microfiction often seems to meld with Prose Poetry, especially in the work of Lydia Davis. I'm curious how people think they are different and/or the same.


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    Ann Bogle
    Jul 30, 11:12am

    PP/FF is the title of an anthology edited by Peter Conners and published by Starcherone. Double pianissimo/Double forte. Music again!
    Lydia Davis is included in it, along with many others.

    From the foreword I was asked to write in 2005 to my prose poem chapbook: "When I wrote XAM: Paragraph Series in 1998, I was in those cities and locations cited in these passages. I see the pieces as related prose poems. A prose poem, as I have practiced it, is two pages or fewer in length and uses language, rather than temporal events, as the first given. Glimpses of action, person (not as in fiction, “character”), and scene may also appear in them. Prose poems are less calculating than fiction and less tightly crafted than a short story or short poem; they are less pre-meditated. Perhaps they are more rhythmic. My friend, Michael J. Kelly, admitted to finding the rhythms in XAM to be difficult to follow. It reminds me that rhythm is something also personal. The best rhythmic writing would be “beatest.” Yuan is my codeword for today." It still seems possible to see it that way for me.


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    Gloria Garfunkel
    Jul 30, 02:11pm

    Prose poetry " uses language, rather than temporal events, as the first given. " That's really fascinating Ann. And yet, I think, when you do both equally, that's when the melding takes place of prose poetry and microfiction.



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