Great American Prose Poems : From Poe to the Present

Rating:
Summary: Prose by any other name...
Review: A canny introduction ushers the reader into this hybrid art form. The examples illuminate the form's history and variety. Most of the prose poems are superb; only a few disappoint. And readers previously unfamiliar with the genre (like myself) will likely be introduced to established but little-known writers of tremendous depth, beauty and originality, like Lyn Hejinian and Fanny Howe. I highly recommend this collection.

Rating:
Summary: Celebrate Prose Poetry
Review: This book is a great read. Each poem left me with with ideas that I either identified with or was glad I saw them fresh (though of course, there were a few I could live without), but in totality, the words used to put forth philosophy, stories, and also humor with language are a real gift from David Lehman as editor.

Two poets I liked best in this anthology were Poe and Stein as I get a sense of pacing and musicality in them that I see in no other.

One element of the prose poem definition I noticed is that a prose poem comes from a poet. That is to say, you need to be in the poet circle first before your prose can be called prose poetry. If for instance you are a novelist and write without line breaks and have all the elements of poetry other than this, you don't seem to get your piece recognized as a prose poem. David Lehman recognizes in his introduction that there a very long prose poems that could not be included. What if we went beyond the American borders and look back in history outside the French roots, wouldn't Virginia Woolf's "The Waves" and James Joyce's "Ulysses" be long prose poems? Woolf plays with the word as does Joyce, with Woolf and Joyce it is hard to hold onto their ideas like a prose poem can be as it reverses in verse. Yet there is nothing more musical and poetic than to hear Ulysses aloud.

To add to the voices of the prose poem, I add one of my own here, as might you:

Characters are Numbers if tautology's contradictions exist like the cleaving of bangs & the cleaving of bangs. Zero, my cypher, might I introduce you to Act I? Ladies & Gentlemen, my ciphers. Take two steps back vis-sa-vis a V, the pretty maidens all dressed In a row. My Zero, next to a whole number magnifies it ten fold and two kindred Zeros, One hundred fold, through to infinity, which is the violet end, the formative beginning. An oven of ovaries like a pair of pears. Character Zero, you atom! You are the snake Biting your tail that makes me run twice as fast. Character Snake, you are a cipher Without your rattle & so are babies. The gift of Zion. Ions and Ian's. Omega to Los Vegas. Cleaved would give us U, and twisted again, an up-side-down half of an Eggshell, the top of a tree. Now I transgress. Let me re-enter the atmosphere pulled by Earth's Lightening, as cleaved would give us 'us' in holy matrimony. One folded or crossed, [not boxed in] and nucleated Zero, is Infiniti, everything & nothing. And negative Infinity exists, too, you know? I hope you know as two is a confirmation. So, my Zero Walks the streets ballooning both the good & bad in everyone, but has no electron within Which to pin the badge or the crime on. No opposition to Zero, no charge. Now Infiniti, It takes a multitude of thoughts if we are to define her nature. Some call Infiniti chaotic, gibberish on the piece of paper thrown in a trashcan. I call Infinity the precious man I am sure I saw in every black man in the lineup. When you start in the middle, It's still Infiniti. Good God, Bad God! I declare, negative Infinity. For a moment I Conjoined the company of compass. On the eastern arm of Infiniti, we have a prodigious Nature, the mother of triplets whom beget triplets, whom beget triplets in Sicily. We have the bungee jumper who slingshots towards the approachable & back again. Is there a rush standing at the top, or a rush closing in on nadir? Infiniti, I could go on¡­ But I curve Instead of yield at this moment, as I am on a line of discovery. One is Singular: Once upon a time. One is unique: The Once and Future King. Will I read The second coming? That would make him the twice and future King. Did the lord break Some bread so that his left-hand man would stay behind, his right-hand man go forward Like the Phoenix and its reborn? I heat the water with my fingers until the water heats Me. A good story in and of itself does Not make, as you must have round characters, Unless you believe There Be Dragons. Judas was planted with the seed of deceit, ionized. If you let your map curve beyond the horizon, you can keep up with all that is before you. Curves are direct in a sphere & do not intersect spherically. Do you write a straight line? The number 2 curves, but the Autobahn does not. A bore to Bear but fast. Joy is to see The trajectory when birds ellipse to flight & horses prance to air. My castle is built With microwave-, dishwasher-safe platters. I am warm in the tummy. Twos are alive For they are the smallest molecule and a prime number. Be like water for which there is No atom. The V is for Victory. Imagine the reasons why different sound alphabets have Different lengths, why nine digits and Zero count for something. Does nothing exist In eternity? The wheel I hear is History: the first seven numbers of Pi. Pi Past seven is Time. It is time. History is real, memory, a mirage. 3.14 is rote, I repeat it. The thirst For water brings on that old-time Oasis, so near & so near. Anxiety drops memory not For ever [sic]. Time never recurs. It's base twelve today. Alas, my lad, take hope. Cherish. Pi is the 16th number in the Greek Alphabet and some do not care one Iota. Do You? I do, ibid, same as it ever was. Le Mort d'Author. La Naissance. In the Shadow of the valley of death live the walks of life. Rose is my silhouette, in hoc signo Vinces, these oils of my youth, their pentimento. My skin is so thin and reflects you.

Rating:
Summary: Puttin on the Hits
Review: This is a great book, an American book, a prose book full of poems, a poetry book full of prose, an American book you can take to Paris, a book with a cover like none you've ever seen, a collage you can take to college. Yes, I dig it.