A Place to Discuss "Found Poetry"!

Writing Desk Chat
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In my creative writing class we learned about (and made some of our own) “Found Poetry”

My general understanding of it is that you take a pre-existing text and refashion/reorder the words to change the meaning and create something new (while obviously crediting the original text).

So you could take a newspaper article and write a poem using only the words which are in the article.

I personally found it pretty fun and I don’t even enjoy writing poetry all that much so I thought I’d make a thread where we can talk about it and even clarify if people have a different understanding!

So:

  • Would you ever create a poem like this? Have you?
  • Have you heard of it before?
  • What do you think of the concept?
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oooh i hadn’t head about this before

i’m terrible at poetry, both writing and reading / understanding it (i know i know, i’m ashamed of it as a lit student) but this sounds really interesting, i love the re-defining that it seems to imply?

i don’t know if i’d ever create a poem like this, it could be a fun challenge, but poetry’s just not my thing
what i would be very interested in is reading some (along with their original texts)

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I really wanna try this now! It sounds so interesting

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This I can probably do!

We looked at this poem in class, I’m gonna look for the original text now!

We made some in class too, mine was based on an exerpt on a book about Folk Dancing

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okay woah i love this
it’s a very interesting art form and it’s super neat to read a poem like this? since it deviates from the typical poem structures
plus i feel like interpreting this is slightly different to interpreting traditional poetry? so it may be a fun thing for me to do lol

thanks for the share!

and if you ever feel like sharing one of yours, feel free ^^

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I possibly will because I find it a fun writing exercise and I’d love to hear from other people, this is on my writing identity course and it’s one of the forms we’re allowed to use to explore the concept of identity for the assignment!

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ooh i love that

y’know, it may be a cool forums challenge thing to host
like everyone’s given an article or something and each person makes their own found poetry based on it

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That would actually be a really good idea

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Oh another thing! While there’s no strict rules of course, the titles of found poems are often unrelated to the actual poem’s contents.

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There’s also a branch called Blackout Poetry where you actively blackout the words in the article/book you’re using and only keep the words you want for the poem itself!

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ooooh that makes sense
i love that

and ooh i’m familiar with this! i like it a lot :3

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I’d actually thought the opposite.

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I think I made some back when I took my creative writing class. It’s been a while though. I’m not big on poetry since I don’t usually write it.

Yes, I have heard of it before but I forgot what it was called. Found Poetry is an interesting art that stands on its own while still owning homage to the original as you said.

Fun concept if you are a huge fan of poetry! Though I like the more story-immersed poetry like Edgar Allan Poe’s work.

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I LOVE POETRY! I even wrote a poem myself it’s long but I like it😊.

The Opposites
By: Avery A. Bailey

By dawn she rises with the sun
a smile and spirit as beautiful as natures spring and yet she has withered
grief and former happiness shines upon the shell of a once joyous
blessing that shows now only in sunsets unforgiving beauty, her opposite?
He gave, his tears and all, a vow

cast down a love, one that is no exception to his duty and place in his place
of value and occupation, so he could let the world live and thrive in half seasons forever unknowingly

For her love is out of reach, across time and stars she waits for him, hopeful dread spills
over her, tired and hungry she prays for him, centuries since they have
smiled upon one another
now? They await in longing to reunite, one glimpse of each other would be an eternities worth
but alas ‘tis impossible

For her lover, staying in his post , is unable to come to her or she shall pay with
her life, he could never take such a beautiful life as hers, even if the prophecy be proved to
be untrue

For him, whom now and forever sits there alone listens to his beloved’s cries
an endless eternity of pain, and he, whom looking up from his dark and fiery domain below
silently watches her.
her tears the rain
her happiness the blooms
her dancing is the air
Her words, all of humanity’s joy
For she is light, spring, and prosperity, She is Life.
He is fear, pain, and defeat, He is Death
Un able to touch and yet still so close
Their love untouched by time
What now awaits them… a future of hope and eternal love

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Cheesy , I know but it was my creative state at the time lol :sweat_smile::joy: