Prose Poetry

Over the last seven weeks, I have posted on this platform several poems, from the traditional fixed (sestina and villanelle) to the contemporary free forms, including the so-called na?ve poems. In addition, poetry is also expressed in prose (poetic prose), particularly the prose poem. These short poetic forms usually reveal a moment of awareness, either from direct observation of nature or an introspective emotion. To illustrate my assertion, I am pleased to include a short paragraph in which the persona (that is, the character, not the poet) in the context captures the sentiment of the breaking up of a love affair.

ATTRACTION (By Jose L Recio)

I'm sending you flowers, and I don’t know why. That my soul gravitates toward you, I know. Silence, loaded with emotion, separates us. I remember our yesterday filled with passion, and today's vacuum shocks me. I filled myself with the essence of your womanhood—not a limit, or a filter between us. We drank nights of waltz. Why did the intensity of our past vanish? You sent me a birthday card with congratulations written on the front and a farewell sealed on the back, and I despaired until it dawned on me that he, whose place I had once taken, came back and replaced me, in turn, in your heart.