I taught the most AMAZING group of writers this past weekend in an online weekend workshop hosted by Bending Genres. I really can’t recommend these humans enough—and I encourage fellow writers to look at Jonathan Cardew’s forthcoming workshop on character as well as Sara Lippman’s.

On that note—and partly as a bookmark for myself as I share and study prose poetry—these prose poems have influenced the permission I give myself in understanding (and bending) the form.

"32 Views from the Hammock" by Lance Larsen (Kenyon Review): for list poem

3 prose poems by David Shumate (Mad Dog Blues blog)

"[9]"by Yoel Hoffman (Tikkun)

"A Land Governed By Unkindness Reaps No Kindness" by Terrance Hayes (McSweeney's)

"Among the Prophets" by Essy Stone (New Yorker): for language

"Childhood" by Brenda Hillman (Kenyon Review Online): for an "essay in rhyme"

"from Curriculum Vitae" by Yoel Hoffman (Poetry)

"Describe the Situation in Specific Detail" by Emma Bolden (So To Speak): for great use of conceit

"Domestic" by Jenn Givhan (Adroit Journal): for interesting use of white space

"Eventide" by Ray Rasmussen (OJAL): for an example of the haibun form

"Final For" by Ron Silliman (Double Room): for example of long prose poem that inches close to flash

"He Said Discipline Is the Highest Form of Love" by Beckian Fritz Goldberg (Blackbird)

"How to Sit In A Cafe" by David Shumate. From High Water Mark (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2004). A prose instruction poem that uses directions to describe feelings in a backward manner-- what you wear when you feel X, how you look, etc.

"In A Sunday Kitchen" by Dina Relles (Pidgeonholes)

"Information" by David Ignatow (New Yorker): for factoid prose poems

“Instructions for Banishment” by John Sibley Williams (Figure 1)

“Minotaur // Dylan Roof” by John Sibley Williams (Figure 1)

"Past Immaculate" by Beckian Fritz Goldberg (Blackbird)

"Prayer for What I Do Not Want" by Amorak Huey (Third Point Press)

“Repast and future” by Bob Hicok (Blip Magazine)

"Stereo" by Ann Waldman (Poetry): for use of parataxis

"Subtraction" by Maxine Chernoff (KYSO Flash)

"Teaching A Child the Art of Confession" by David Shumate. From High Water Mark (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2004). A prose instruction poem that starts with what not to do and frames it in the negative admonitive voice.

"The Drag Queen Inside Me" by Denise Duhamel (Web del Sol)

"The Fire Cycle" by Zachary Schomberg (Poetry)

"the other word for thesaurus" by Maurice Kilwein Guevara (Guide to Prose Poetry, Rose Metal Press.)

"The Problem with Sappho" by Charles Rafferty (New Yorker)

"The Sound" by Maxine Chernoff (Jacket):for a dialogue between lovers about the sound of an orgasm

"The Tale-less Hoffman" by James Wallenstein (Tikkun)

"from Whereas" by Layli Long Solider (Poetry): for its amazing and innovative form and the spell it casts

"Year of the Dig" by Danielle Mitchell (Cease, Cows): for use of the aleatory voice in prose poems