by Liz J. Bradley
The road to writing poetry is different for everyone. Many poets pen their first lines in their childhood or once they begin to study poetry academically. However, there are many writers who feel that poetry is inaccessible to them. It can be daunting to try a new form, especially if you are unsure of the rules.
I harbored these fears myself. It wasn’t until I joined a critique group composed of both fiction writers and poets that I began to embrace the idea of telling certain stories through poetry, despite having not written any poems beyond school assignments many years ago. If you already write flash fiction, you have many of the skills necessary to write impactful poetry and are well on your way to becoming a speculative poet.
Exploring Differences Between Poetry and Prose
My definitions of poetry and prose are not meant to be authoritative but rather inspirational springboards from which you can jump into creation. Conversations around “What is poetry?” and “What is speculative poetry?” have been written about time and time again, and the boundaries between styles can be hard to pin down outside of categories like form or historical period.
Painting with a wide brush, I like to define prose—and by extension flash fiction—as a narrative structure that tells a complete story through a character. There will always be exceptions, but in general, flash fiction tells a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Straddling the divide, prose poetry embraces poetic language and rhythms while formatted in a block of text similar to fiction in form. Poetry usually concerns itself less with the narrative structure and focuses on evoking emotion through imagery and wordplay. Poetry can achieve this through many different structures, from villanelles, formal sonnets, and pantoums to the freewheeling flow of spoken free verse.
Distilled down, poetry is meant to evoke and explore emotion through defamiliarization of the ordinary or exploration of the fantastic, while prose is the journey of a character through a defined storyline.
Examining and Embracing Poetic Language in All Forms
Prose and poetry may have differing definitions and goals, but poetic language is still present in all forms of storytelling. The balance of these elements can tip a piece one way or the other.
A classic example is Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” In this short story, the opening paragraph evokes a beautiful scene. Poetic language is at the forefront, and the author has not yet introduced a main character. It draws you in with rhythms and beauty, so that in the end, you feel as if you are a part of Omelas. And then, when you are hit with the horrifyingly stark details of the reality of their situation, its impact is amplified. While clearly a short story, I venture to say that without the poetic language, it would not have the same impact or elicit the same response.
Another short story that illustrates poetic form outside of poetry is “Five Views of the Planet Tartarus” by Rachael K. Jones. It is short, sectioned, and highly evocative. The 549-word flash fiction reads emotionally like a poem but has a clear beginning, middle, and end. It employs dialogue, character, and setting in a more concrete—albeit condensed—form. Because of its strong poetic sense, I believe it could be written as an elegy to the prisoners of Tartarus, with a similar impact.
My own speculative poem “Whale Fall” has some of the elements of flash fiction—and in fact began as flash. It garnered many warm rejections with notes like “we love the voice, but we wanted more plot” and “it didn’t feel like a complete story.” Advice from my critique group echoed this. The fiction writers suggested scaling back the poetic language to make room for more plot and backstory. Conversely, the poets encouraged me to embrace the poetry of the piece. Trusting the vision of the poets, I leaned into a free verse form to take readers on a journey that was more about the themes than the individual character in the story. The change in the reception of the piece when submitted as a poem was night and day, resulting in a quick acceptance.
Converting Flash Fiction to Poetry
Perhaps you, too, have a piece of flash that has “not enough plot” and language that is “too poetic.” There are several ways you can experiment to see if a change in form is what is needed:
Add line breaks. While poetry is more than prose with line breaks, it is a good place to begin your experiment. Try breaking the story up by following a throughline of emotion or personal meaning rather than a strict storyline. Read it out loud and find where you pause or shift.
Distill a single emotional beat into poetry. Zooming in is a tactic of poets who want to explore all sides of an idea. Start with the theme of your piece and find the lines that most strongly evoke that emotion or idea. Can you expand on these? Luxuriate in the language and follow the flow.
Expand on a common event by looking at it from a different angle. Exploring an event or thing with intense detail and objectivity so as to make the familiar unfamiliar is a popular tool poets use called defamiliarization (see above). Are there places in your story where you can highlight a common idea or experience using poetic language to reveal a new or heightened understanding for your reader?
As storytellers, a great place to begin is with why we feel called to tell any particular story. Is a narrative arc the best way to explore this, or could you use a poetic form to better effect? Familiarize yourself with the myriad of options available to you by reading widely. (The Rhysling Anthologies are a great place to start.) Evaluate what each form does well, embrace what you like, and dive in!
Explore more articles from SPECULATIVE POETICS
Liz J. Bradley grew up in a small town in Central New York but followed a career in the theatre that took her from the ocean to the tundra to the Eiffel Tower. In a creative pivot, she began to explore new worlds on the page instead of on stage. Now, she spends her days as an Executive Assistant and her nights telling space stories through prose and poetry. She hosts the Sci-Fi Snacks Podcast, and you can find her online @lizjbradley.bsky.social.