Has poetry helped your prose expression?

poetry is new to me,

but having been raised by someone who was truly insane.You learn to live with cold,unemotional resolve.And have absolutely no fear.Its not a place I would recommend to any one.poetry has started to open my sealed soul.What I might find there I do not know.It seems to be a a vehicle that will help me heal,in time.I do agree with Peter in some respect.A lot of us seek out the lowest levels of life,because as a people we are lazy.Things like poetry take work and will elevate your thought process.And open your world to more than one can reach out and touch. So yes it has helped,and so have a lot of the poets here,they will always have my thanks for a kindness not much seen in the world from which I came.

I have written about 100 times more prose than poetry over the last 35 years and I am still making mistakes I made at 10. My "study" and practice of poetry has yielded one thing, a way to waste time.

When I write about my life, my feelings and my concerns I write crap. When I write about philosophy I am brilliant (if unappreciated.)

But they said that Latin and Greek would improve my writing and nothing seems to improve my writing. I laugh so hard when multifaceted critics in here complain that I have no talent. They are preaching to the choir so far as that is concerned. AND, they write as badly as I do but minus the self-awareness. It is sad to see them carp at their own shadow.

Having spent years in the business world, my writing was always very succinct, especially when it related to potential legal matters. This also served me well from the standpoint of editing. Verbose is not something that I am familiar with nor would likely tolerate. And I wonder why I like Emily! lol

Superlative question Elaine. The answer for me is a resounding yes! Writing poetry has made me more acutely aware of the rhetorical flexibility of language as well as the sounds of language. Consequently, my prose writing has become more precise, more expressive, perhaps more pleasantly musical than it had been before. My speaking has perhaps also improved. Long ago, I voluntarily put myself on a program of my own designing: disgusted by the interminable 'and uhs' and 'likes' of my contemporaries, I made it my mission to learn to speak in full, grammatically correct sentences. The effort had a most salutary effect on my writing and though the progress was to continue for years, the effect was immediate and lasting. I was only 14. On Thursday I'll be 55.I've now written written poetry for 40 years, read thousands of books, written perhaps ten thousand pages of prose and a couple thousand poems, and I owe it all to that strange idea that excited my adolescent brain four decades ago. If I could give that to one person, it would be the fullest culmination of my life, a dream come true. Hyperbole? Perhaps. Honesty? Unquestionably! What is sad and poignantly ironic is that my frustration with my fellow man gave birth to this long process of personal evolution, and my profoundest wish is to give it whole to another person. Does this make any sense to you at all...

I am only a teen writer, but I do noticed some of the things that you pointed out. The funny thing is that I never really thought about it.

Definitely, the writing is more concise, clean and direct. I've noticed that in poets who also write memoir and/or fiction their writing is much more interesting. Mark Doty's book, Heaven's Coast, will make you weep it's so beautifully written.

No. Different form completely. Prose good, poetry emotional diarrhoea.

I mean

what I say

and say

what I

mean.

I believe you

have pulled

proverbial wool

over your own

eyes.

Your 'tone' has not

softened

in prose,

but rather hardened

under hand -

edly.

.

.

tricky aspect. lookup on bing and yahoo. just that might help!

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Yes it has.

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