How to Write

 A nice thing about “found” poems: you don’t start from scratch. All you have to do is find some good language.  Found poems take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as poems. The literary equivalent of a collage, found poetry is often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems  A pure found poem consists exclusively of outside texts: the words of the poem remain as they were found, with few additions or omissions. Decisions of form, such as where to break a line, are left to the poet.

Step 1: Find from fifty to one hundred words you like. Words that really interest you. Forbidden sources are poetry and song lyrics. They’re both already poetry. Don’t use language that has already been “artistically arranged”. Keep track of where you got your words so you can give the source credit.

Step 2: Copy the language in the sequence that you found it. Double space between lines so it’s easy to work with. Step 3: Study the words you found. Cut out everything that’s dull, unnecessary, sounds bad, or is otherwise offensive. Try to cut your original find in half. Change punctuation if you need to. Adding your own words is “illegal”. A found poem is found. You can add a word or two…two words TOPS. Make other little changes if needed: tenses, possessives, plurals, punctuation and capitalizations.

Step 4: Read your cut-down draft one more time. Is there a better title than “Found Poem”? Put the words into a notebook, spacing or arranging them so they’re poem-like. Tips:  Break up words that often go together like “white clouds”, by ending one line with “white” and starting the next line with “clouds”.  Read aloud as you arrange.  If it sounds good, trust it.  Arrange the words so they make a rhythm you like.  Arrange them to read the way YOU like.  Put key words on lines by themselves  Form the whole poem so it’s fat, skinny or any other shape.  Emphasize key words by printing them LARGE, underline them, use different type faces or italics.  Give credit: Write citation at the bottom of the page.

SAMPLE: Prose Selection from Chang-Rae Lee’s “Coming Home, Again” From that day, my mother prepared a certain meal to welcome me home. It was always the same. Even as I rode the school’s shuttle bus from Exeter to Logan airport, I could already see the exact arrangement of my mother’s table. I knew that we would eat in the kitchen, the table brimming with plates. There was the kalbi, of course, broiled and grilled depending on the season. Leaf lettuce, to wrap the meat with. Bowls of garlicky clam broth with miso and tofu and fresh spinach. Shavings of cod dusted in flour and then dipped in egg wash and fried. Glass noodles with onions and shiitake. Scallion-and-hot-pepper pancakes. Chilled steamed shrimp. Seasoned salads of bean sprouts, spinach, and white radish. Crispy squares of seaweed. Steamed rice with barley and red beans. Homemade kimchi. It was all there-the old flavors I knew, the beautiful salt, the sweet, the excellent taste. (p.5) I wish I had paid more attention. After her death, when my father and I were the only ones left in the house, drifting through the rooms like ghosts, I sometimes tried to make that meal for him. Though it was too much for two, I made each dish anyway, taking as much care as I could. But nothing turned out quite right- not the color, not the smell. At the table, neither of us said much of anything. And we had to eat the food for days. (p. 6).

Found Poem Based on the Prose Selection My mother prepared A certain meal To welcome me home. We would eat in the kitchen Table brimming Kalbi, leaf lettuce to wrap the meat Garlicky clam broth with miso and tofu and fresh spinach Shavings of cod Scallion and pepper pancakes Chilled steamed shrimp Steamed rice The old flavors I knew Beautiful, salt, sweet, excellent I wish I had paid more attention.