To me, prose poetry cuts poetry down to the true essentials. No line breaks. Other devices can be used, but the point is to find that point where poetry and prose fuse. Definitions become obscure. Yet, when well done, the power is there. The dual power: the power of prose and the power of poetry. The three selections are offered in order of my personal preference.

"Samnang" is based on a story I read in a Dallas paper about a Cambodian teenager who lived through some of the atrocities there. Her name means "lucky."

"Straw Man" was the first poem published by H. Edgar Hix rather than Hubert E. Hix. It was written a few months after my second suicide attempt. (Two attempts and I've never succeeded in even hurting myself. I can't seem to get it right. Thank God.)

"Grandmother Believed" is loosely based on my relationship with my Grandmother Seavy. I would not be a poet if it were not for her. I would not be the believer I am, the independent spirit nor the solitary I am if it were not for her.

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