It never rains but it pours. This morning, I posted about my new prose pieces on Litter, which led me into a consideration of the varieties of non-fiction and non-non-fiction prose I have produced, with lots of links to online examples. That post may be read here: Pages: Three pieces of prose in Litter. Are they prose poems or not? In short, I back away ambivalently from the term ‘prose poetry’.
As if in answer, but actually in further complication, I’ve had another prose piece published in International Times. Again, I must thank poetry editor Rupert Loydell for including this piece. It is entitled ‘A Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesie’. It's a piece written during the ceremony for the King’s Coronation last year (was it?). In a way it continues the tone of the last poem in British Standards; in another way it doesn’t. It is not based on sonnets, it is in prose, and it is a wild piece of satire, slightly more narrative than the pieces in Litter.
It may be read here: A Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesie | IT.
I’ve sat on the piece for some while because the (not my) King has been receiving cancer treatment, and I thought the gesture potentially dubious. I had the same problem with the sonnets of British Standards when Bo(ris Johnson) was in hospital with Covid. If either of them had succumbed to illness (in a fatal sort of way) my poetry (or prose) would be buggered. Both recovered – and literary product may be released into the world without fear. So, roll on Britanocles the Great and Good (lines borrowed from Davenant, as lines were borrowed from Marvell; guess which poem of his? Hint below!).
My previous contribution to International Times may be read here (not prose, a poem about Ukraine and Gaza), with
links to all the other writings I have published there, for which I am
grateful. Pages:
'Pretend-sleep' published in International Times. There’s a video there,
too.
