Line-Breaking: "Bad Poems" from Prose
A usual, common critique of certain poets consists in removing the line breaks in order to show that their blank verse poems are, in fact, just paragraphs with artfully introduced line breaks. Rather than taking this critique as a situation to be avoided, it is necessary to embrace this condition. I propose, here, that a prose work can be converted into a poem through introducing line breaks and new punctuation in order to fulfill a poetic syllabic structure (eg: Tanka, Haiku, Alexandrine, etc...). In doing this, there is no doubt that the text produced fulfills at least one criteria of poetics.
Now. The big question is: will a poem written in this manner pass the critical test of being published?
Eg:
Three Haikus from "Walt Whitman in Russia: Three Love Affairs" by Nina Murray [1]
1
At the core of a
Translation venture, at the
Nucleus, that shapes
2
Other great Russians
Had read Leaves of Grass: Tolstoy
A copy from one
3
Kornei Chukovsky
Was the kind of translator
Who would ask his friends
**NOTE
This example makes textual changes to the source in order to fulfill the poetic metre.
Eg 2: From internet article title (minimal word modulation) [2]
A Haiku On Venice
Shuttered windows and
Placid canals show Venice.
Sleepier side in --
Eg 3: Curatorial Statement (modulated words)
A Tanka from "In Common Place: Common Place" Curatorial Statement [2]
The artworks engage
With notions of a common.
Places through a varied
Entry point by their concept.
And material presents.
[1]
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/walt-whitman-in-russia-three-love-affairs
[2] Unfortunately, I don't remember the sources for the other two, so just use your imagination.
