Weigh in Wednesday ~ Poetry vs. Prose

This is a new weekly meme hosted by Lauren from Epilogue Review. Each week there will be a something vs. something topic for you to post your thoughts about. Make sure to visit Lauren at her blog, Epilogue Review, and she has a link if you'd like to use her picture (shown above) as well as the blog hop code. Comments below with your thoughts are always appreciated! :)

The topic this week: Poetry vs. Prose

OK, so since I'm a total nerd :D, I decided to look up the words "poetry" and "prose" on the Merriam-Webster dictionary app on my iPod to help kick start my thoughts. I was really surprised to see a definition for "prose poem." (It's been a really long time since I've been in an actual English class.) In case, like me, you haven't heard of this or remember what it is, I've got you covered! 

prose poem = a composition in prose that has some of the qualities of a poem

Does anyone have any examples of a prose poem? I'd like to check them out. :)



Poetry tends to intimidate me unless I'm the one writing it. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing what the writer is communicating to me and find myself floundering around trying to grasp the poem's meaning, although, in my opinion, it's a form of writing that can be open to interpretation. Maybe that's what is hard for me to grasp.

The more I thought about poetry in writing this post, the more I thought about my favorite songs. There are so many songs that have perfectly described emotions I've felt that I didn't have the words myself at the time to express them. There's something really beautiful about well written lyrics, and I really like to read the lyrics to an entire album I love in one sitting.

I do read much more prose than poetry though. It seems there is so much more prose readily available out there than poetry. When I get emails from Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc. giving out information on new releases, I rarely see any new poetry books coming out. There is so much writing in prose that is just as beautiful as poetry to me. Ninety-five percent of my favorite pieces of writing are in prose. Does it seem to you that there is more prose out there than poetry?

Since I read more prose and am more comfortable reading this form of writing, then I'm going to go with prose. :)

What are your thoughts? Is it prose or poetry for you?