Interesting; it struck me that a recent short story was, when read aloud, rather lyrical in sound so I started chopping it up into lines and it works–but it doesn’t fit any proper form. The best I could call it is a free-form ode.
Fun to fiddle with it though. And, I suppose if I think it could work better as poetry, I could adjust it to fit a structure of sorts. Or, leave it as is and let the reader discover it for himself.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
I’ve often thought (and, I think, often said) that the shorter a story, the nearer poetry it becomes. Truly good flash fiction is, as far as I am concerned, so close to poetry as to be nearly indistinguishable.
I don’t, however, know what this says about long narrative poems, if anything.
I’m not sure that it’s length establishing lyrics or lyrics establishing length. Poetry forces concise imagery and focus so maybe that’s the key.