What are you giving to the reader that’s different from the more conventional forms of poetry?
Well, it’s prose; it’s handy, user friendly. I hope to offer something of interest to the reader, but that is not intrinsic to the form (or lack of form) itself. Does the form you’ve chosen dictate the content or is it the other way round? The main thing about prose is its flexibility; it allows me to use the language I would use in everyday conversation. Or not. There is a wide range of things one might do with a prose poem. I have my ways of working with the prose poem, whereas another poet might have entirely different ideas. Is the prose-poem common now in the US or are you a lone voice? Robert Bly, Russell Edson, James Tate, and W S Merwin, and others, published books of prose poems back in the 60s and 70s. Around that time also, I discovered Baudelaire’s prose poems, which were written in the 1860s, I think. I started writing prose poems after reading those poets’ work; around 1972 or 73. During that time there was a fair amount of interest in the prose poem; then in the 80s the
