An Introduction to the Prose Poem

A brief note to join the chorus of those praising this new anthology from firewheel editions. Finally, a lucid, helpful, relatively comprehensive collection of prose poetry that will be useful to poets and students alike. Although I find the different categories that the editors have mapped out to be a bit slippery — there are so many of them, and at times it’s difficult to differentiate between them or justify a separate category — it’s far preferable to organizing the book chronologically or according to author.

For example, “Anecdote,” “Flash Poems,” “Aphorism,” and “Rant,” among others, seem like clear and helpful rubrics under which to consider approaches to the form. I’m less certain of more unwieldy headings like “Extended/Controlling Metaphor,” “Structural Analogues,” and so on. But again, for pointing out the sheer variety and scope of practice that poets have brought to the prose poem, the service provided here is invaluable. There’s also a good introductory essay that offers a brief history of the form, and goes thankfully light on appearing to defend it — I’ve found that students learning about poetry simply aren’t interested in the “controversy” surrounding prose poetry, and poets either get it or they don’t; there’s no convincing anyone that poetry can be prose if they don’t begin from a point of being open to the idea. Brief explanatory essays also precede each section.

More details about authors and ordering can be found here; I’d like to end by briefly highlighting a couple of the poets included in the book.

Andrew Neuendorf‘s long piece in the “Abcedarian” section is a wonder that deserves attention. One of the longer pieces in the anthology, it’s also probably the funniest and reflects the hard work and ingenuity that go into Neuendorf’s poems. A fan of Oulipo and game-based writing, this poet is quickly proving himself one of the more inventive practitioners of the challenging procedural poem.

Frequently, poets that make use of such structures are content to display their ability to do so, and not much more; the effect is of peeking over the poet’s shoulder at his or her exercise notebook. Not so with Neuendorf’s work, which performs the exponentially more difficult trick of appearing effortless, even inevitable. To quote from the piece is not to do it justice; examples of Neuendorf’s sharp comedic wit can be found online without too much difficulty. Hopefully, it will not be too much longer before his marvelous Clem System is published in book form, so it can take its place among the more unique and original projects to come along in many years.

Steve Wilson is another poet long overdue for a full-length collection. His brief “Valediction to the Reader Completing a Book of Poems” is reflective of the quality and tone of his poetry.

Good. You’re finished. Sober with poetry, somber with reflection, make a new start of it, schooled by the images of men wandering without direction, the bell tower that houses orphans during the war, the road through the forest where light languishes on a dead leaf.

Precise and rich with action and imagery, Wilson’s poems dare to possess that most underrated and underappreciated poetic quality: lyricism. But it’s lyricism that does not come from preciousness or pretension. The music of Wilson’s poems emerges from his careful attention to voice, his ear for emotion in speech. In a great number of short pieces (many of them in a more “traditional” stanzaic form), he’s proven himself a master of a range of poetic personae, unnamed narrators who query and challenge readers with subtle and surprising insights that ride the razor’s edge of his sharp lines. These poems appear in a number of major journals and anthologies; hopefully soon, they’ll appear together in book form.