My first book was poetry, but I didn't write it first. I wrote it third. So my first two books were prose.
Originally, poetry creates the myth, while the prose-writer draws its portrait.
There is poetry even in prose, in all the great prose which is not merely utilitarian or didactic: there exist poets who write in prose or at least in more or less apparent prose; millions of poets write verses which have no connection with poetry.
I believe that only poetry counts ... A great novelist is first of all a great poet.
Prose exists to convey meaning, and no meaning such as prose conveys can be expressed as well in poetry. That's not poetry's purpose.
The poetic prose that most interests me is that of Henri Michaux.
I think many people (like myself) prefer to read poetry mixed with prose; it gives you more to go by; the conventions of poetry have been getting far off from normal life, so that to have a prose bridge makes reading poetry seem more natural.
I guess I find the boundaries between poetry and prose to be somewhat permeable.
The simple Wordsworth . . . / Who, both by precept and example, shows / That prose is verse, and verse is merely prose.
