Michelle Y. Burke | September 2021

Volume 53 Number 4, April 2021

Topic

Gerry LaFemina describes the paragraph as a kind of “gift box.” The writer meticulously wraps up a treasure to be presented, and the reader, in turn, gives the gift of attention. The paragraph, whether we name it prose or prose poetry, whether we’re looking at one or several, is a rich space to explore in the classroom. Because it is concise, we as writers must be very intentional about what goes inside it. Like a good gift, a well-written paragraph will both surprise and delight.

I. Educational Setting

This essay and the corresponding teaching guide would be appropriate for use in undergraduate or graduate workshops as well as in community-based workshops. Because thoughtful paragraph construction is an essential skill for the prose writer, and because the prose poem is a popular form in contemporary poetry, the topic lends itself well to multi-genre classes.

Is the essay appropriate for use in multiple educational settings?

LaFemina emphasizes the genre-defying aspects of the prose poem and the extent to which it can hold lyrical and narrative impulses. He also poses interesting questions about genre in general—what it is and who defines it—fruitful questions for both the beginner and the advanced writer. As writers move from writing for themselves to publishing their work, the questions LaFemina raises about the relationship between the writer, the editor, and the reader—and who defines a work of art—would make for interesting conversation. In short, this essay could generate worthwhile discussion across a wide range of settings and levels of experience.

II. Lesson Objective

The primary objective of teaching this essay would be to foster a deeper understanding of prose poems—how they work, and what choices a writer makes about what to include and what to leave out. A prose writer would benefit from time spent on thoughtful paragraph construction, and a poet would benefit from exploring the constraints and possibilities of the popular prose poem. Discussion of the prose poem also naturally leads to consideration of imagery, specificity, juxtaposition, subjectivity, and time—key concepts for all students of creative writing.

What discussions do you hope this article will generate?

LaFemina writes, “What do we do with the notion of the prose poem, something by its name that lives in the netherworld between these major genres? It is inherently sui generis, an amphibian, a Frankenstein monster.” LaFemina points to the blur between the prose poem and flash fiction that has occurred within the last thirty years. What is most interesting to LaFemina, however, and what might be emphasized in class discussion, is what makes a paragraph (whether you label it a prose poem or a work of flash fiction) a surprising and satisfying “gift” to the reader.

III. Contextual Introduction or Lead-In

Given their brevity, prose poems can be read and discussed in the classroom in real time. Having the advantage of requiring no advance preparation on the part of students, prose poems lend themselves equally well to day-one discussions and to one-day workshops. In these scenarios, LaFemina’s article could serve as follow-up reading. In a class focused on flash fiction or prose poetry, LaFemina’s article could be a foundational text, presented early and returned to throughout. In a multi-genre course, LaFemina’s article could serve as a pivot between poetry and prose, with the paragraph being explored as a container for both prose poetry and flash fiction.

IV. Broader Discussion Points and Questions for Students

What main points from the article do you want to draw students’ particular attention to?

The Importance of Objects

Gustave Flaubert famously said, “Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.” Similarly, LaFemina sees objects as sources of great possibility—objects are, after all, the things the writer puts in the “gift boxes” of paragraphs. Given the brevity of the prose poem, objects naturally become symbolic or become vehicles for subjectivity. LaFemina writes, “The object—as symbol, as metaphor, as thing unto itself, as totem and fetish, as that thing which there are no ideas without—both personal (subjective) and in the world (objective) is in the DNA of the prose poem itself.” Therefore, students might discuss the presence of objects in prose poems—how they are described and what they convey. LaFemina provides excellent examples for analysis in his article, including short prose pieces by Aloysius Bertrand, Italo Calvino, Dino Campana, and Michael Martone. Students might apply LaFemina’s analysis to additional examples, such as the work of Gertrude Stein, Harryette Mullen, Pablo Neruda, Russell Edson, or Mark Strand.

Time and Surprise

LaFemina makes interesting points about how short prose pieces contain both lyrical and narrative impulses. The narrative impulse moves through time, dipping into backstory or moving forward through chronological events. In lyric, “time stands still,” to quote LaFemina. Whereas it is tempting to say that a prose poem indulges the lyrical impulse, and flash fiction is driven more by narrative, LaFemina suggests that this is a false dichotomy. Sentences move the paragraph forward, and like the crank of a jack-in-the-box, the sentences (whether lyrical or narrative) move the reader toward a satisfying surprise. That surprise might be epiphanic or narrative in nature, but often it is both. Asking students to articulate how each sentence within a paragraph moves the paragraph forward can be a rewarding exercise in close reading.

V. Considerations for Students’ Individual Work

Objects and Subjectivity

Students might fruitfully brainstorm how objects enter into their own writing, and how or why they associate objects with particular people, places, or ideas. Students might challenge themselves to write about a person, place, or idea by focusing on the objects they connect to it, or they might begin with an object and move outward from object to associations. As a generative activity, students might bring in everyday objects (baseball gloves, wooden spoons), or venture out into the world in search of objects, and then spend time looking at them “long enough” that they become “interesting.” Alternately, students might explore subjectivity by writing about the same object and then noticing how each piece of writing is uniquely filtered through the subjectivity of the writer. LaFemina suggests that students write short-shorts titled “Eggs,” but any object rich with diverse cultural and personal associations would work. Students might also consider how visual artists study objects while drawing or painting them and then apply this level of attention to their own portrayals. 

 

Time and Surprise

Considering how their own work moves narratively and lyrically can be useful to students. Students might playfully apply new labels to paragraphs—prose poem, flash fiction—and see how this impacts their writing and revising. If a short prose piece moves through time narratively, students might revise to dive deeply into a lyrical moment or to abandon narrative and freely associate. If a short prose piece holds stillness at its center, a student might revise to bring in other moments in time and allow these moments to reverberate. Students might read one another’s poems with an eye toward “surprise,” noting moments of surprise both large and small, then they might go back to these moments to see if they can be opened up and realized even more.

VI. Potential Activities

Prose poems lend themselves well to exercises in imitation. For example, students might dream up their own fictional cities using Calvino’s Invisible Cities as a model or create a Blue Guide to their own state, with Martone’s piece as a guide. These kinds of exercises can also be done collaboratively. For example, students from the same state might work together on a Blue Guide, or, alternatively, it might be generative to group students familiar with a state with students who have never been there, thus allowing familiarity and imagination to spark creativity.

VII. Additional Resources

A course focused on the prose poem might use an anthology, such as Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present, edited by David Lehman. Students might also further explore the critical and historical contexts of the prose poem in The American Prose Poem: Poetic Form and the Boundaries of Genre, by Michel Delville.

VIII. Conclusion

LaFemina ends with a poem of his own, “Monkey Wrench.” Here’s his last paragraph: “All day, I’ve been building the machine with spare scraps from the workbench: different nuts, different bolts. So many cogs and sprockets set. So many head sizes: metrics and ASE. So many hours of labor. Tightening, loosening: my monkey wrench the only tool for the job.” This is, of course, what the creative writer is doing—working with the spare scraps of experience, trying out possibilities, looking for cohesion in a world where things do not align. If, from the scraps, we are able to build something pleasing, then that is a gift.

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Michelle Y. Burke is the author of Animal Purpose, winner of the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize. She teaches in the College of Arts and Letters at the Stevens Institute of Technology.