In another class, we did an activity where we wrote "found-poems". For those of you who have never heard of this, it is taking different words or phrases from another text and making a poem out of it. In some cases, people have actually taken entire blocks of text and then just written it as a poem, making it into lines and stanzas. I'm sure there are other ways of doing it, but the way we were told to complete the exercise was by blacking out all the words we were not using, and then making a poem out of the ones we kept, using the exact words, in the same order.
Here's the one I did in class that night (I believe I added the commas):
One icy thought, buried now
Still, thirteen years later
It reminded me of fragile glass
Before I'd actually written a "found-poem", I thought the idea sounded silly. Now that I have, I think they're pretty amazing. It demonstrates the power of words, and I love how people taking the exact same text as I did would all come up with very different poems. The example above may be somewhat abstract, but it still somehow works, and can be interpreted, if not definitively, then perhaps on a personal level to the reader.
In my American Poetry class, we each had to present a poem of our choosing. I chose, instead, to share this found-poem that I wrote, and then host something like a "poetry workshop". I printed out part of a mini-essay I wrote for my Non-fiction Writing class, which I took last fall. I gave everyone in the class a copy, and had everyone create their own poems. I also shared my own from the same text (once again, I added only the punctuation):
Memory.
The bridge, casting lines into feeling.
That particular moment when you know
What you didn't know when very small.
After I shared my poem, I was amazed by how many others in the class wanted to share theirs. So my ten-minute presentation turned into 25 minutes. It was really wonderful to listen to what everyone came up with. They were all unique, and many of them, quite beautiful.
So if you think you don't like/can't write poetry, I'd suggest giving this exercise a try. It's surprisingly fun, and the results can be amazing!
4 comments:
Breana,
I'm so glad your poetry workshop worked so well. Indeed, I enjoyed so much writing this "Found-Poetry" that I'd also like to give it a try in one of my Lesson Plans for other course. My idea is very similar to yours, but we can discuss it during class.
-Luis
I've done found poetry in a couple of classes, and it's very fun! I'm not someone who will ever love poetry, but I enjoy working with language. I think this would make for a great classroom activity, especially at the beginning of a poetry unit. That way it can show students that they can work with language.
I tried this exercise in Language and Learning. It was really wonderful and something I would definitely like to use in my classroom someday. Great poems, Breana.
I've seen this kind of poetry before but never tried it. Maybe I will though with my students. Thanks for the suggestion!
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