In a post from Beyond the Margins, Robert Thomas, author of Bridge, shares his perspective on the differences between composing poetry and writing prose. Beyond the obvious distinctions inherent in the genres, Thomas discusses the personal challenges he faced when switching from poetry to prose: "It’s hard for me to get beyond my inhibitions when writing poetry, but I can lose them in prose. In poetry I get stuck—'I can’t say that—it’s too prosaic'— meaning it’s too complex to be expressed concisely. I never think the reverse when writing prose. I never think, 'I can’t say that—it’s too intense or passionate or beautiful or poetic.'"

"The crucial distinction may be between art you can immerse yourself in and art that is 'antiabsorptive,'" writes Thomas. "When even the line breaks of a poem wake me out of its lucid dream, I want to keep dreaming, and for me, for now, prose, not poetry, is the language of dream." Click here to read the full piece: "Crossing Over: From Poetry to Prose." Thomas' new fiction collection Bridge is now available at the BOA Bookstore.