Writing 'Found' Poems

My most recent published poem is called ‘Blue…’ and it can be viewed in Issue 53 of Silver Blade Magazine:

 

https://www.silverblade.net/2022/05/blue/?fbclid=IwAR0zw3A48KnDdnwOTaaKsu-bLi2LyDzBTQYcBrQHxkmNeJsg9CCIK60MFKU

 

‘Blue…’ is what is known as a ‘found’ poem. It consists entirely of lines and phrases taken from popular songs, poetry by other people and pieces of prose fiction. There is nothing original in this poem except for the way these excerpts are placed on the page. It is a kind of literary collage, where the interest for the reader comes from:

    a) the specific extracts selected by the poet,

     and 

     b) the way they are set out on the page.

 

‘Found’ poetry is an interesting genre for poets to attempt as it enhances understanding of the meanings of lines and phrases that stick in your mind, and how they work together when juxtaposed. The reader’s pleasure and understanding can come from their familiarity with the original source material, but even if they don’t recognize the excerpts selected, they should get some pleasure from the way the choices resonate. There should be some satisfaction from the poet’s choice of which lines to put together, which to leave on their own, how much of a line or sentence to include, where to gather their material, whether to echo or repeat, or to contrast and contradict.  Sometimes, random lines can be put together in such a way that they produce meaningful new sentences; often, the lines don’t fit quite so fluently as this, but have a metaphorical, symbolic or linguistic connection. Poets can experiment with changing the emotional atmosphere of the original works.

You don’t have to use ‘literary’ extracts in your ‘found’ poetry. You could gather material from any sort of written or heard discourse: road signs, nursery rhymes, pop songs, graffitti, newspaper articles, films, radio interviews, advertisements, guidebooks, instruction manuals, biographies, diaries, notes, even from your own past works. It is great fun to experiment.

If you want to find out more, try:

https://poets.org/glossary/found-poem

https://anthonywilsonpoetry.com/2016/08/26/a-list-of-found-poems/

I haven’t written many ‘found’ poems myself but I have occasionally used ‘found’ extracts in my work. In the following piece, I used quotations from some of Kate Rusby’s songs plus quotations from previous poems I had written myself:

At Kate Rusby's Christmas Concert, Sheffield City Hall, 2018

dry ice drifts
at the mike, Kate talking about Christmas shoes
mum beside me, behind her shield
frost and barbed wire

send the old year out on the rolling tide *

why are you sitting so hunched and worn,
crouched in your seat with your reading glasses on?

arms up and swaying
the beat stamped through the stalls

this isn’t your thing; you prefer Take That.

unease seeps
cold as midnight breath
fiddle and banjo bee-stings in my veins

coloured lights shift
in her seat, mum talking of the daily News
red-hot sparks in my gut, concealed
white noise and fire

rolling downward through the midnight
comes a glorious burst of heavenly song.** 

why do you scowl and look so forlorn,
while everybody else is singing along?

eyes roll, silently praying
the music that seeps out through the walls

this isn’t your thing but you could give it a shot.

laughter leaps
you, joyless as death
sweet chiming bells through the lanes

  

*Let the bells ring, by Kate Rusby

**Rolling Downward, Rusby and traditional carol