The Power Of Poetry And Prose

Introduction

I was out walking, as I usually do each day, and started thinking about whether it is better to write poetry or prose when creating something that may be fictional or observations on defined things like people, places, pets and more.

These are my thoughts, and I may repeat things I have said before, but hopefully, it may give you the odd idea to boost your own creativity.

This was also inspired by the user Red Dagger, a new Vocal creator who commented

I love maybe you could teach me to how to do it

on this story

My Thoughts On Writing Forms

I have mentioned two high-level forms, poetry and prose, although they can mix and also look like each other, poetry can look like prose, and prose can look like poetry.

Prose tends to be longer and more languid generally and poetry tends to be more direct, but poetry can be epic and tell stories like The Iliad and The Odyssey. This was one of mine that ran to ninety lines because I based it on the form of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven".

A much shorter piece was this for a Vocal Microfiction challenge which had to be done in 50-100 words.

Like poetry, there are many forms of fiction too. We tend to think of it as a book or a short story, but then these become serials, scripts and more. One type of fiction I quite enjoy is chat fiction where most of the story is done as a conversation, like phone texting. This is an example of one of mine.

Poetry is usually more compact so you have to be careful in your choice of words.

While poetry can be free-form, my preference is for defined forms.

The sonnet is wonderful for writing about situations, love, friendship, people, things or places that you admire. It is one of my favourites and have created many since I started writing on Vocal. This is one of my pieces about various poetry forms.

Short-form poetry can be really engaging, especially when you try and pack a whole story or feeling into it. These are three examples in a single post for you to look at and maybe try.

I think the most emphatic form of poetry is the villanelle. It uses repetition and a defined form to help hammer home a point. Here you have to be careful that the repeated lines fit in with the flow of the poem, and this does put some people off trying this form, but it is my favourite form of poetry, and after a slow start I believe that I am proficient in the art of the villanelle.

Here is one of mine

Conclusion

All writing is powerful as long as it is written with a purpose, and with the heart of the creator.

I believe that you need to believe in what you are writing and then your audience can pick up on that belief and take it into their own lives.

Your writing may be a little fun, a funny story or a limerick, that makes people laugh or at least smile. It may be something that makes them feel the love you are sharing, it might be something that excites them, and if you are really lucky they may want to share it with others.

This piece has taken me the best part of a day to write but is only six hundred or so words, but I have percolated ideas as I walked, listened to music and watched TV.

All writing has power and I hope this has a little power to make you want to try some different forms of writing and share it with others.

The music is "Wrapped Up In Books" by Belle and Sebastian

Thank you for reading.