|
Description:
|
Talking Stranger uses the prose poem genre in order to explore the hybrid nature of the prose poem and the duality of being human—flesh and spirit . The prose poems employ various personae who use seemingly disparate dictions and syntax—colloquial , metaphorical , crafted , and spoken—to convey the idea that verbal and written communication is at best , faulty , and at worst , ineffective . That said , the personae of the prose poems—male , Christian , gay , female , middle -class , childish , straight—in Talking Stranger do try to overcome their own inadequacies regarding communication and rely on their memories , imaginations , and speech in order to engage , entertain , and inform others . Likewise , the personae struggle internally with conflicts about their own physicality and spirituality , desire to live now and fear of consequences , and creativity , mortality , and malevolence .
Formally , the prose poems in Talking Stranger also blend expectations about the poetic and the prosaic to utilize then upset the notions of poetry being artful and prose conveying the ordinary . More precisely , the prose poems rely on reader expectations about how prose and poetry function in order to upset those same reader notions , with the hope of making readers more aware of the already -existing generic bridge between poetry and prose . |