Every generation of writers seeks new ways to capture the complexities of thought, emotion and imagination. In a world where content is abundant yet genuine artistry can be difficult to find, creative innovation remains essential. The prosimetrum, with its seamless interplay between prose and verse, offers a unique and flexible form through which poets and writers can expand the possibilities of storytelling and lyrical expression.
The Role of Syllabic Verse in Contemporary Poetry
Syllabic verse occupies a fascinating, highly specific niche in contemporary poetry. It is neither a mainstream dominant form nor completely obsolete. Large Language Models (LLMs) notoriously struggle with it because of tokenisation. They process language as semantic chunks rather than the phonetic 'jaw-drops' of spoken English that human poets instinctively hear and count. As a result, syllabic verse has become a kind of 'creative CAPTCHA' for poetry contests. An AI will confidently produce a line it thinks contains seven syllables, only for a human reader to discover that it actually contains nine.
Syllable counting can sound restrictive if used carelessly, but it is often closer to natural speech than traditional metrical systems. Many contemporary poets employ syllabic structures without drawing attention to them. The syllable count functions as invisible scaffolding, shaping the poem from within, while unexpected line breaks create energy and movement. In this sense, syllabic verse can act as an antidote to free verse, which some writers find paralysing in its apparent freedom.
Experienced poetry readers often enjoy the tension of form. A poem can become more satisfying when readers realise that the poet has successfully negotiated a difficult constraint, such as a strict syllable count, without sacrificing natural language. Ultimately, few readers count syllables on their fingertips while reading. What matters most is emotional resonance, atmosphere, imagery, and the sense that the poem's music arises organically from the language itself..
Prosimetrum
At its core, a prosimetrum is a literary form that interweaves prose and verse, creating a dynamic tension and interplay between the two modes of expression. Traditionally, the verse serves as the dominant or climactic element, providing emotional resonance, aesthetic closure, or philosophical depth. When prose remains the dominant component, as in certain novels and narrative works, the form is often referred to as versiprose.
Examples of Prosimetrum
• Haibun by Matsuo Basho (17th-century Japan)
A combination of concise prose and haiku. The prose provides context or reflection, while the haiku distils the experience into a moment of heightened perception.
• Tanka Prose (Heian period, 794 to 1185 and beyond, Japan)
Courtly or reflective prose interwoven with tanka poetry, where the verse often complements or reframes the prose narrative.*
• Excire by Suzette Richards (2025)
More than a form, Excire is a mood, a movement, and a moment. Both the succinct emotive prose and the accompanying verse embrace oscillation as a poetic device. The Suzette Swan Arc verse, with its characteristic open-ended finale, is always placed last.*
Considerations
• Length and balance: If the prose becomes too extensive or the verse too slight, the work may read more like an essay accompanied by a poetic garnish than a genuine prosimetrum.
• Function of the verse: The verse should do more than decorate the prose; it should deepen, challenge, transform, or illuminate it.
• Ethos of integration: The prose and verse should feel organically connected rather than artificially joined, each contributing to a unified artistic purpose.
Introducing Suzette Prime Prose
Prose & Suzette Prime poem
Suzette Prime is unusual in that it explicitly requires the expression of a philosophical statement as a central component of its design. Equally important is its structural requirement that the syllable count of each of the poem's lines totals a prime number—the lines are uneven in length and not incremental in syllable counts.
Like haiku and tanka, punctuation is used sparingly and capitalisation is generally reserved for proper nouns. A Suzette Prime poem is not simply a sentence broken into short lines. Rather, it relies on imagery, suggestion, and implication. Being a Syllabic verse, it does not use rhyme or metre as the instinctive line breaks provide the rhythm. As with all effective poetry, it shows rather than tells, trusting the reader to engage with the spaces between the lines and arrive at their own interpretation.
Suzette Prime Prose shares with haibun, tanka prose, and Excire the brevity of its prose component where normal grammar rules apply, and the integral relationship between prose and verse. The prose usually introduces the setting or distils a mood; the verse is never an afterthought. As with haibun and tanka prose, the poetic section may appear either before or after the prose passage, set apart by a deliberate negative space. This flexibility allows the poem to serve either as a crystallising conclusion or as an opening spark that the prose then contextualises. Together, the prose and poem express a personal philosophical insight derived from everyday observation or experience. Unlike many traditional Japanese-associated forms, Suzette Prime Prose is not restricted to nature themes and may draw its inspiration from any aspect of lived experience.
The title functions almost like a doorway: it frames the prose narrative and the poem that follows, giving readers a point of entry into the journey.
The following example illustrates the integration of prose and verse within the Suzette Prime framework:
PROSE FIRST
The Dance of Life
A dawn chorus of unfamiliar birdsong woke me before first light. I had slept well despite the night sounds of a nightjar and the heavy breathing of unseen animals beyond my tent. Before exhaustion finally claimed me, a feeling of inevitability had washed over me.
we can't change circumstances
embracing moments
taking stock
we are either the hunter or the hunted
what part do we play
in the dance of life?
© Suzette Richards (2026)
VERSE FIRST
The Dance of Life
we can't change circumstances
embracing moments
taking stock
we are either the hunter or the hunted
what part do we play
in the dance of life?
At dawn, the chorus of birds felt like a reminder that survival is not always chosen but lived. The night’s heavy breathing beyond my tent had already posed the question. Morning light only confirmed it: inevitability presses in, yet meaning lies in how we respond.
© Suzette Richards (2026)
*Related articles:
TANKA PROSE and Popular Poetic Devices
Excire: A Prosimetrum of Breath and Drift
Definition of Suzette Prime:
@ Poem Types OR Dictionary
Image Created by MAI-Image-2.5-Flash (9/9/2026)