Number of literary critics expressing their views about the recent genre of 'Prose-Poem' said it marched into Urdu literature during the sixties but it is now an accepted form of poetry. Expressing his views, Karachi poet, Ahmad Humaish, chief guest at the function held at the Pakistan Academy of Letters, here on Wednesday, said the genre was unusual.
It was written like a prose but it was the outcome of global effects and a large canvas as well as the gift of acting as vehicle of emotional discourse, lacking in usual poetical dialogue, he added.
However, poet and playwright, Sarmad Sehbai, said 'prose poem' was as sign of revolt of poets against established forms, doing away with structure and form of normal versified poetry but bringing in new elements of sonorous and rhythmical sound patterns. But he added the value of prose-poem is in strong imagery, and without this it would become banal.
A more attractive definition of 'prose-poem' came from Hamid Mir who said it was the last knot of poetry, and the long hair could not be opened any more Quoting an Arab poet, who had studied prose-poems of French literary and also propagated this form in Arabic, said when it came to reciting, people asked for the metric verses.
Nasir Ahmad said what ever the bias against it, prose poetry had acquired strength in literature, although a more enterprising effort was required to popularise it, because in the words of the noted Punjabi poet Nasreen Bhatti, it distilled truth albeit it might look like a borrowed image from foreign literature.
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