‘Defiant formlessness’: Prose Poem as Process

In this paper we explore the prose poem with reference to two fields of discourse. The first is a collection of scholarly literature that addresses the prose poem as a form. The second is taken from research interviews we conducted with poets from around the English-speaking world, where the tendency of the discourse is not so much form, but concerns of activity. From our archival and interview research, we conclude that writers in general, and poets in particular, have a practical need to remain mobile, active and flexible in the activity of writing. Those who reject the signpost ‘prose poem’ may be understood as committed to a focus on writing, not specifically on form; and to making what they can with what they have at hand