I enjoy writing poetry, but am a beginner with a lot to learn. Besides, I have a strong sense of privacy and am reluctant to put my heart on my sleeve, even for limited distribution. But for some reason finding poetry is much easier than writing it. Choosing from pre-existing words somehow mediates the expression and makes me much less reticent -- much as artists often find that monoprints, with their mediated mark-making, are easier to do than painting directly onto the paper.
An artist friend of mine sent me a link to a blog that posed a found poetry challenge. We were too late to participate in the challenge, but decided to do it ourselves. The rules were to look through your bookshelves and choose titles that would become part of a poem. Then stack the books up and take a picture.
Technically you were allowed to add words to fill out the poem, but I decided to make it harder and use just the titles.
Here's my found poem:
Away from home
living dangerously
wanting
a lost love.
I want it now!
Set the stars on fire!
Bad love
over the edge:
moment of truth.
Coming home.
150 ways to play solitaire.
Time enough for love
before I die.
Kathy, poetry isn't putting your heart on your sleeve. It's putting your brain on the page. xo Mary Jo (P. S. Love your found poem.)
ReplyDeleteWhat fun! Ill never look at a bookshelf the same again.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite amazing what even just your punctuation does to the pile of titles--makes them a poem.
ReplyDeleteI suppose you know the magnetic fridge poetry where you can hardly avoid coming up with something sexual, but it's a similar principle: play with words that are given. But the book-title one is even better, what a wonderful way to rearrange your bookshelf. Every day. (Saves you sorting your scrap bag...) ;-))
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