An Introduction to the Prose Poem

by Brian Clements (editor), Jamey Dunham (Editor)

This anthology collects classic prose poets alongside younger poets and under-appreciated practitioners of the genre. With an innovative structure (organized by compositional strategy), a useful introduction, and instructive headnotes, An Introduction to the Prose Poem clears a new path for general readers, students, and instructors interested in exploring the "ramshackle and unexpected... thoroughfare" [Campbell McGrath] of a hard-to-define genre. With work by over 140 poets and translators, including Pablo Neruda, Margaret Atwood, Russell Edson, Charles Simic, John Ashbery, Carolyn Forche, Christian Bok, Robert Bly, Maxine Chernoff, James Tate, Miroslav Holub, John Yau, Fanny Howe, James Wright, James Schuyler, Jorge Luis Borges, Denise Duhamel, Frank Bidart, Tom Andrews, Peter Johnson, Nin Andrews, Christopher Buckley, Cornelius Eady, Joe Brainard, Matthew Dickman, Allen Ginsberg, Brenda Hillman, Francis Ponge, Max Jacob, Gabriella Mistral, David Ignatow, Louis Jenkins, George Kalamaras, Rachel Loden, Morton Marcus, William Matthews, Campbell McGrath, W. S. Merwin, Amjad Nasser, Amy Newman, John Olson, N. Scott Momaday, and many others.

Genres: Poetry

312 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2009

Reviews

[Rudolph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I had to read it for a class, there are a lot of interesting styles and examples of some pretty great prose poems that I probably wouldn't found out on my own. This is just a subject in poetry that is so rarely covered in the mainstream of poetry. Prose poetry is most often overlooked by the traditionally structured styles and free-verse (both of which I love for giving the creative process some parameters). You think prose, you think of essays and lengthy stories, both of which can be tedious and overly lengthy when compared to the other poetry styles. Its the perfect go-between and more poets should go out and embrace or just learn more about the different types of prose poetry.

[Rey Armenteros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic selection! That is why five stars. The one thing is all the typos. In a book of poetry, a typo might still make sense and throw the whole thing on its side. So, there is detective work ahead of you if you start this one.

[True Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

The prose poem, in my opinion, is the result of people taking a very simply idea and making it more complex and confusing than it needs to be. A prose poem is a poem that isn’t written in verse. Some pieces in this collection are flash fiction and prose poetry at the same time. Apparently, while prose aims for a cohesive narrative and gives specifics, poetry aims to give impressions, and evoke emotions.

In An Introduction to the Prose Poem you’ll find everything from poetry, flash fiction, prose poetry, prose pieces–but that is just my opinion. As Clements and Dunham picked these pieces and put the term “Prose Poem” on the front cover, I would assume (I know, a dangerous thing to do) that they both believe all these pieces to be prose poetry. If that is the case, this book does a poor job of introducing anything. Instead it gives readers a plethora of pieces that have the loosest connections such. These being, Anecdote, Object Poems, Central Image/ Central Object, Extended/Controlling Metaphor, the list goes on. Each section is proceeded by an introduction, which can be helpful, but still left me wanting more. WTF is a prose poem?

Despite the lack of explanation regarding prose poetry, there are some fantastic pieces in this book. My favorite line in the whole thing came when I saw something on a friend’s facebook page that said,” Grab the closest book, turn to page 45, the first sentence is your love life.” Having not started this book yet I grabbed it up, as it was within reaching distance, and looked. This is what I got from it:

“If I could fold this lonely year in half and then in half again, until finally it became next year, I would keep folding until I came to where you are.”

This sentence, by Kyle Vaughn in Letter to My Imagined Daughter, really caught me as a standalone quote–especially in the context I read it in, as freaking brilliant. This is by no means the only piece I enjoyed from the collection. While some of it I found tedious, other pieces were well worth ten minutes to decipher and delve into.

I think, in retrospect, this would be more enjoyable for those interested in poetry than flash fiction. I loves stories, something with a narrative arc, and this book, sadly doesn’t have that. If you are interested in poetry, however, it is probably worth your time, especially if you are interested in prose poetry.

[Gerry LaFemina · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a number of good prose poems, but "Introduction" in the title suggests that the book might be usable as a textbook and as such might include historical poems in prose, few of which appear in the book. It's sections (Poems on the Prose Poems, Surrealism, Fable, etc) seem in ways arbitrary, but worse, the introductory material before the sections is so slight (most of these introductions are under a page long and just talk about the poems chosen) don't illuminate the possibilities of the section or really much about the prose poem form. Still, there were prose poems among these pages that I didn't know and that excited me to discover.

[CX Dillhunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

collection good, arguments for "types" is thin at times, needs overview/essay, a good start at something never attempted

[Grace Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a longer piece I did on this book. http://n2poetry.com/2011/12/27/a-look...

[Reacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

decent anthology, although 95% of the entries were taken from a single journal, Sentence, which struck me as lazy.