I get the idea of prose poetry as a freer way of expressing yourself, but I struggle to encapsulate ideas outside the rigid structure of a rhyming scheme.
This link was quite helpful on the subject.
I had this prose poem published in a community arts anthology some time ago –
No Checklists
At the community hospital
A woman sat beside the bed with a checklist for the echo of a man born out of a coma.
“What is my name?” she asked her husband stoically;
Even though she knew it wasn’t really him, propped up in bed, barely able to hold a spoon.
He would have told her not to be so daft, his life story no mystery,
No facts to be fed, no checklists, no prompting, no daily repetition.
But duty made her go through the drill for form’s sake;
With too little time to record the decades of a marriage and a past they could no longer share.
Does this read like a poem? Possibly, but with minor editing, it could just be a narrative piece of prose with nothing poetical about it. What do you think?
odespinner 