Found or Headline Poem

Base XP: 40

Found Poetry is poetry that is discovered within, and created from writing that already exists.

A nice thing about "found" and "headline" poems: you don't start from scratch. All you have to to is find some good language and "improve" it.

How? You find interesting, ordinary "prose" (prose is language like this - not pretending to be poetry) and turn it into a thing-like-poem. Plenty of strong and beautiful poems are made from plain language. You can find moving, rich language in books, on walls, even in junk mail!

Poems hide in things you and others say and write. They lie buried in places where language isn't so self-conscious as "real" poetry often is.

STEP ONE:

Find from 50 to 100 words you like. Words that really interest you. They may all come from the same source - but they needn't.

If you half-remember a good passage from a book or old magazine, track it down.
Check out mail, talk shows, walls, and malls.
Hang around where people talk and where there's print.
How about notices on bulletin boards or highway maps, insurance policies, obituaries, "junk mail"?

STEP TWO:

Write down the language in the sequence that you found it. Double space between the lines so it is easier to work with.

STEP THREE:

Cut out everything that is dull, or unnecessary, or just doesn't seem right. Make sure that you have words that communicate the emotions you want to evoke. Arrange the words so they're "poem-like". Sometimes you will put key words at the ends or beginnings of lines. Sometimes you will want to break up words that usually go together, like "white clouds"

READ ALOUD as you re-arrange!

STEP FOUR:

Read your cut-down draft and decide if there is a better title for it than "Found Poem".

STEP FIVE:

Make any minor changes necessary to create your poem. You can change punctuation and make changes to the words to make them fit together (such as tenses, possessives plurals, and capitalization).

STEP SIX:

When you're close to an edited down version, if you absolutely have to, you can add a word or two to make the poem flow more smoothly BUT that's TWO (2) and only TWO!

STEP SEVEN:

Read aloud as you arrange the words. Pay attention to line breaks. Arrange the words so they make a rhythm you like: You can

space words out so that they are all alone

orallruntogether.

You can also put

key

words

on lines by themselves.

STEP EIGHT:

At the bottom of the poem, tell where the words in the poem came from. For example:

From "A kind word goes a long way" by Rachel Yoder, on Stories of Love Page in The Mystery of Love Web Site.

1. Check out these examples of found poetry, then work through the above steps to create your own.

2. Write a paragraph about where you found your poem. Include bibliographical information (author and title). This paragraph should explain what inspired you to write your poem and where you found your words.

Submit your poem and paragraph to the ASSIGNMENT: Found or Headline Poem dropbox.

Click here for the rubric that will be used to assess your assignment.

Google Sites

Report abuse