Mat Gilson

I love lots of kinds of poetry, but some of it is tricking you. Instagram style poetry, which is short and sweet, relies heavily on line breaks in order to heighten the tension of a single sentence. This is great in theory! However, much is lost when this is the only poetic device being considered. Line breaks alone do not make a piece into a poem. I tend to think that prose poetry, which functions without traditional line breaks, is a more interesting form, because there are no aesthetic distractions. 

Some poets can do both. Dylan Thomas has a selection of poems in geometric shapes. As ever, it is up for interpretation, but one could argue that the shape is informed by the number of syllables in each line, the flow of the poem from smaller to larger more complex words, or that it was simply an arbitrary, visually unique restriction in order to enhance his own creativity. 

On the other hand, Rupi Kaur has a number of poems in different shapes which highlight the drawings they accompany. In this case, in my opinion, the line breaks are purely aesthetic. There is usually no syllabic or iambic pattern, and the addition of the line breaks are not always indicative of meaning. In both poet’s cases, though, the shape of the poems was considered intriguing enough to get people’s eyes on the page. 

This is why prose poetry, without the immediate pull of an interesting shape or design, can have more to offer. The only thing the poet is left with once the aesthetics are taken away are the actual words. Now metaphor, imagery, and other poetic devices must be entirely relied on in order to define the work as existing within the genre. 

Now on to my strong personal bias. Richard Siken, my ride or die favorite poet, used to teach poetry workshops in which everyone had to submit their poems in the same font, without names, and without line breaks, for class critiques. This loss of the ego of the poems allowed for clarity- was there really any emotional pull, or were there just dramatic pauses in the lines? Eliminating the breaks didn’t diminish the depth, it forced the students to create it. Now, in his most recent volume of poetry, Siken has moved away from the complex line breaks he used in the past, instead presenting a collection of prose poems that seem even more intimate, almost like diary entries from a visual standpoint, for their paragraph style. 

All of this is just to say, line breaks do not a poem make. Don’t get tricked.