Poetry Postcard 32: Airbus A320

Prose poems: poetry or flash fiction? Discuss.

It seems that every time the prose poetry form is mentioned, it comes under attack. Isn’t a prose poem the same thing as flash fiction?

Good question. It’s one of those gray areas of the literary world. I read “The Prose Poem as a Modernist Genre” by Margueritte Murphy. It appeared in The Writer’s Chronicle.

Murphy's anthology of prose poetry.

My take on the article was that the prose poem is about tone. Whether the poem’s focus is on setting, sensory images, or character, it’s all about the mood created.

I have written a handful of prose poems. I tend to use the form for persona poems, written in the voice of an invented character. Is the choice about tone? Possibly. The speakers in my prose poems are invariably younger (under 25) and thinking through a philosophical change triggered by a minor event. (Am I that predictable?)

Not all prose poems work this way. One of my favorites, which combines narrative and character beautifully, is “A Story about the Body,” by Robert Hass. 

It begins, "The young composer, working that summer at an artist's colony, had watched her for a week.  She was Japanese, a painter, almost sixty, and  he thought he was in love with her." (Read the rest of the poem here. Recommended for HS and up only.)

Hass gives us two characters, a setting, and a problem -- all elements of story. So what makes this a poem? I don't have a simple answer.

Vintage Postcard #32

Poetry Postcard 32 was one of my original antique store purchases. (Correction: The card was a donation from poet Patricia VanAmburg, who saved it from a memorable flight with an authoritarian steward.)

When I was a child, we made an annual trip to England, where I have family. Visiting the pilots in the cockpit was always a highlight of the long flight.

But this is our post 9-11 world and pilots are off-limits  to passengers. The image of an empty cockpit intrigued me.

Airbus A320

I been thinking about this Lufthansa postcard for a long time, its empty cockpit full of lights and instrumentation, ‘cause it could be some kind of metaphor for life–God is my co-pilot and all–except the blank windows are wacked, like God’s flying me through heavy fog and even He with a capital H has to turn on autopilot and let the dang computers land this baby, which is fine if you believe God made the rules and stepped aside−now kids, play nice and no biting−if you believe that then He with a capital H can’t change the plane’s increasing velocity, the weather, or even snap his big-ass fingers and halt gravity, but if you don’t believe it, this ends up being a crap metaphor and this flight ends up screwed ‘cause I just got a look at the cockpit and there’s nobody home.

Laura Shovan

Postcard Information:

Lufthansa │A STAR ALLIANCE MEMBER

Cockpit, Airbus A320, Printed in Germany

What is your take on the prose poem/flash fiction debate?

If you’d like to study up on the issue, check out these links:

Poets.org: "Mutable Boundaries: On Prose Poetry"

Bark: "How To Tell Prose Poetry Apart From Flash Fiction"

anthologies:

At Amazon.com

At Powell's Books

At Amazon.com

and online journals:

The Prose-Poem Project, online journal for prose poetry

Double Room: A Journal of Prose Poetry and Flash Fiction

Writing Exercise

Recommended for high school and older Monty Python fans.

Call me crazy, but I'm inspired by the wild metaphor poet Robert Hass used at last month's Dodge Poetry Festival. Is being U.S. Poet Laureate really like being the Encyclopedia Salesman in that Monty Python sketch?

I love weird writing exercises, so here's one for you.

Compare life as a poet/writer to a Monty Python character of your choice.

Go obvious and get all Lumberjacky:

"I'm a blog writer and I'm okay.

Online all night and I sleep all day."

Go surreal -- (Startling Admission -- when I'm trying to write and my kids come into my office wanting Mommy time, I react just like the cute little bloody-fanged bunny in Holy Grail.)

Go anti-writer's block with one of my favorite Python sketches, " Confuse-A-Cat."

Go write!

Poetry Outreach in New Jersey

Poet Khalil Murrell is Poetry-in-the-Schools Assistant for the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, which puts on the fabulous biennial poetry festival in northern NJ.

As part of his position at Dodge, Khalil does outreach to New Jersey's neediest school districts. Here is the final part of our interview.

KM: The Dodge Poetry Program’s interest in doing outreach in under served communities in urban and rural areas is simply to make our student and teacher-centered programs reflect the actual demographics here in the state [of NJ]. We have been curious as to how we can get the word out to students and teachers in such cities as Camden, Elizabeth, Paterson, and Vineland. Last year, we began meeting with Department Chairs in Newark to inform them of these programs and surveying teachers about how we may best reach other faculty members in their school and district. As a result of our outreach, we registered for Student Day a record number of high school students and high schools overall in Camden, my hometown. [Non-New Jerseyans, the city of Camden has been struggling for decades -- since its major manufacturer, Campbell’s Soup, left the area. The city was also Walt Whitman's last home. Whitman is pictured, left.] I have also received feedback from friends, poets reading at the Festival, and Festival attendees hugely applauding the growing diversity of the line-up, both in terms of cultural background and artistic style. AA: What’s your best “behind the scenes” Dodge Festival story?

KM: I try never to “geek out” over celebrities or famous poets. I was in line for lunch, chatting with a friend, when Robert Hass walked up behind us and joined the conversation, perfectly down to earth and kind, as he always is. He said, “Hi, I’m Bob.” I opened my mouth to speak but for 3 or 4 seconds nothing came out, and he’s looking at me, bright-eyed and smiling, until I finally retrieved my voice box to say, “Uh…uh…I know who you are. You’re Robert Hass.” (I’m guessing he’s probably known that for some years now.) He chuckled a little and patted me on the back. Afterwards, I was so embarrassed. AA: Which poets made an impression on you at this year’s festival? What did you like about their work?

KM: I loved how poets and poems spoke to each other throughout the 4 days. A great complement to Sharon Olds’s “Ode to Douche Bag” was Kevin Young’s great reading of “Ode to Pork” on Saturday night. It was a magical moment when he said, “Babe,” and the crowd took a second to catch the movie reference before laughing and applauding loudly. Having suggested we invite him to Festival, I was also looking forward to seeing Chris Abani. For me, Chris was the star in Stanhope, if there was one. He was so generous in conversation, so brilliant, yet humble, and so likable. He offered such fresh perspectives to the conversations and his readings were impressive.

AA: Chris Abani was a star. Great reader, personable. Even though some of his poems dealt with difficult subjects, Abani's humor and optimism drew in the audience.

Thanks for your insights, Khalil!

I wish I had time to share more about the festival. Never did get to my critique of the Borders Book Tent. Never told you about Robert Hass comparing being U.S. Poet Laureate to Monty Python's Encyclopedia Salesman sketch ("Can I interest you in a nice sestina?" Watch the original sketch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsvWVbBowXo ) But, it's time to stop dragging my heels and move on.

Hope to see you at the 2010 Dodge Poetry Festival, y'all.