Python & Poetry <was Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! ...(Mar 26)>

[Alistair Cockburn]

d_blade8 at hotmail.com (Lemniscate) wrote in message news:<7396d2b2.0203271554.5a564e1b at posting.google.com>...

> Incidently, this is related to why, historically, some
> poets looked down at prose as a mode of expression (poets, they
> argued, convey ideas, thought, emotion while prose writers had to be
> concerned with conveying the plot).  It's all about what ideas we are
> trying to convey...

Right. I write poetry reasonably well, and talk reasonably well, but
don't feel at all comfortable with fiction.

For me, the diffence between a poem and a story is that the poem
*touches* someone where they already are, and a story *moves* someone
to a new space.

At least, I don't understand any poem that I don't already understand
(ditto from my poems), whereas I have been moved to new understandings
from reading prose.  (also interesting, I can move people to new
understandings through discussion, because I can see they expressions,
but don't feel I can move them to new understandings in text).

Alistair