by Paul H. Thompson

Created on: August 01, 2008

Eros possesses the writer. That most ancient god of desire imbues the wordsmith with a love of language. The writer is enthusiastic, literally god-filled. Divine desire haunts her soul, inspires madness in the elusive pursuit of the perfect phrase, insatiably compels her toward the ever-receding, ungraspable phantom of the knowable unknown. Each word is a precipice, each sentence an abyss. She reels, unbalanced by vertigo before each edge. With leaps of faith, she flees and yet pursues at once the daemon of desire, both lover and beloved.

Yet language never satisfies, however loved. It ever leaves a longing in the writer's heart. Eros tantalizes; words deceive. The sacred vision flickers, flitters, fades on the horizon. The god taunts love is blind. The writer knows the language of her soul remains untranslatable. Fulfillment of her passion's goal lies just beyond the boundaries of the page.

Writing blurs a clear demarcation between poetry and prose. A gossamer veil enshrouds its mystery. The cloak, like bacchanalian wine, clouds understanding. A tip of the goblet perfects, however briefly, a crystalline insightful peek underneath the lifted corner of the veil. A fleeting glance reveals: in vino veritas. This passing moment of intoxication brings clarity. The mellow warmth of ambrosial fermentation imparted by divinity enticingly promises what no mere mortal may obtain. A single sip more of the wine unmasks the ruse. The magician's sleight of hand deceives. The dancing revelers cry and drag the drunken writer swaying from the stage. Eroticism fills the air and whirl is all. Dionysus' dance is truth and poetry his song. Poetry possesses prose; it never is the other way around. The god prevails.

The German word Dichtung combines the English meaning of poetry and prose. Dichtung is almost always translated as poetry, as in the title of Goethe's great autobiography "From My Life: Poetry and Truth" ("Dichtung und Wahrheit"). In the broader German word poetry does not only mean rhythmic, metered or rhyming form but includes the kind of prose that English might term literary, artistic or creative. Dichtung does not distinguish between the two words but embraces them. So taking my cue from the more encompassing German term, I will argue that writing poetry far surpasses prose in difficulty.

Prose in English may certainly be difficult to write. Beautiful, creative expression rises to poetic distinction. But common prose includes such types of writing as newspaper journalism,

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