Found Poetry
What is Found Poetry ?
Found poetry is poetry taken either directly from an outside text source, or heavily inspired by an outside text source, that can be magazines, advertisments, news articles, graffiti, interviews, anything. The trick to creating an excellent found poem can sometimes be as simple as changing the context of the words or giving the text a unique title. A great source for found poetry is the website http://verbatimpoetry.blogspot.com/ which publishes found poetry exclusively.
Example Found Poem
One of the things about working on capital cases all your life is that you keep things in proportion
by Alisa Holland
Unless
you've got
an execution date,
it can damn well wait
until Wilf
has had
his bedtime story.
If there is
an execution date,
Wilf
will understand.
Taken from an interview with Clive Stafford Smith, ‘My Family Values,’ Guardian Weekend, 16 November 2013. Submitted by Ailsa Holland.
by Alisa Holland
Unless
you've got
an execution date,
it can damn well wait
until Wilf
has had
his bedtime story.
If there is
an execution date,
Wilf
will understand.
Taken from an interview with Clive Stafford Smith, ‘My Family Values,’ Guardian Weekend, 16 November 2013. Submitted by Ailsa Holland.
Scott Sigl's Found Poetry
The following poem is based off of an advertisement for an upcoming video game...
Content rated by ESRB
Mature 17+
Blood
Sexual Themes
Strong Language
Use of Alcohol
Violence
I've invited a friend over for the upcoming saturday night.
I will begin by suggesting the use of alcohol.
I am a poet. If I choose all of my words carefully,
delicately,
charmingly,
and assemble them in a unique way that no other poet has expressed before,
then she and I may meet again the following saturday night.
If my poetry is not quite so
delicate,
then there will be violence
and there will be blood.
Daniel Day Lewis,
for your wisdom
I pray.
Content rated by ESRB
Mature 17+
Blood
Sexual Themes
Strong Language
Use of Alcohol
Violence
I've invited a friend over for the upcoming saturday night.
I will begin by suggesting the use of alcohol.
I am a poet. If I choose all of my words carefully,
delicately,
charmingly,
and assemble them in a unique way that no other poet has expressed before,
then she and I may meet again the following saturday night.
If my poetry is not quite so
delicate,
then there will be violence
and there will be blood.
Daniel Day Lewis,
for your wisdom
I pray.
The following 2 poems are in the style of Verbatim Poetry, unchanged and unedited from their original source.
I discovered this example written in graffiti on a bridge in lower Manhattan...
blank walls = blank minds
Found Poetry
At the northern border of Israel, in a bunker formerly used in combat overlooking Lebanon and Syria, I discovered written in graffiti...
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem
Psalm 122:6”
and directly below it was written-
“I wanna meet hot israeli girls
[email protected]”
Explanation of the pieces -
The found poem "Blank walls = Blank minds" I found in lower Manhattan and was immediately struck by it. I thought it to be an incredibly profound statement said so efficiently. It is a piece of graffiti in support of graffiti, it is a plea to write and a plea to think freely, and I think it certainly makes it's case. It argues, "How other than by writing, can we share our thoughts and ideas? Graffiti is one way to do it, I suppose poetry is another.
For the two pieces of graffiti found in a bunker in Israel, I simply thought it ironic that such drastic contrasts could exist in the concerns of those who had visited that bunker. Granted, the bunker is no longer used for military reasons, so many may have visited the site as tourists and not as soldiers, however the contrast in priorities is quite extreme. A prayer for peace, quoted from the book of psalms, and a pick-up attempt with an aol screen name. I hope you were able to find some humor in it too.
The ESRB rating poem I believe is self explanatory. It is not directly found verbatim, the way the other pieces on this page are, it is simply inspired by the ESRB rating of the video game advertisement in a magazine I read. It is meant to be humorous and expose the silliness of censorship, labeling art, music, and even video games with warnings about it's content. I find that I pray for Daniel Day-Lewis's wisdom more and more often everyday.
For the two pieces of graffiti found in a bunker in Israel, I simply thought it ironic that such drastic contrasts could exist in the concerns of those who had visited that bunker. Granted, the bunker is no longer used for military reasons, so many may have visited the site as tourists and not as soldiers, however the contrast in priorities is quite extreme. A prayer for peace, quoted from the book of psalms, and a pick-up attempt with an aol screen name. I hope you were able to find some humor in it too.
The ESRB rating poem I believe is self explanatory. It is not directly found verbatim, the way the other pieces on this page are, it is simply inspired by the ESRB rating of the video game advertisement in a magazine I read. It is meant to be humorous and expose the silliness of censorship, labeling art, music, and even video games with warnings about it's content. I find that I pray for Daniel Day-Lewis's wisdom more and more often everyday.