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'Found' poetry 2

Following on from 'Found' poetry 1, this stage involves selecting the 'best bits' from the chosen piece of writing.

From a broadsheet, undoctored:

'A lock of brown hair and a note headed 'Anne', recording the child's illness and place of burial, were carefully placed inside the box, which is covered in morocco leather, alongside envelopes and pens. A leaf torn from a notebook displays a map of a churchyard and the words "Anne Darwin's grave at Malvern".'

Now imagine that you've never read that particular clip.

                                        A lock of brown hair

                                        and a note headed 'Anne',

                                        recording the child's illness,

                                        are carefully laid inside a box.

                                        A leaf torn from a notebook

                                        displays the map of a churchyard.

It works for me, but you might have made a different selection of words, made different changes, chosen different line-breaks. Try reading the 'poem' to someone, before showing them the original. Would it be improved by adding a title?

A re-written piece from the same paper:

                                         The jade-encrusted tomb

                                         of a Maya king

                                         has been unearthed

                                         in Honduras.

                                         The remains of

                                         a two-year-old child,

                                         painted red,

                                         and a noblewoman

                                         were beside the monarch.

                                         Both were sacrificed

                                         in honour

                                         of the king.

I believe that this has more impact and, in a very real sense, more meaning than the original reportage. The original piece was much longer but, by stopping where I have, my aim is to emphasise the eight words that hit me hardest. It is poetry . . . so there!

Writing activity: Looking for 'found' poems

This would seem to be an activity best suited to upper juniors. But, whatever age you try it with, I'm sure you'd do some whole class sessions at the board first, discussing options for pruning, word substitution and layout.

Investigate sources other than newspapers, such as fact books from the school library. I had one rather gruesome 'poem' published, which concerned the procedure for making an Egyptian mummy. Kids love it!

* Get the children to see if they can 'find' any poems in pieces of prose that they have already written.

* Stress that some words are more important than others. eg. Get children find poems in prose they written. Poems needn't have 'proper' sentences.

* Rule of thumb: If the poem won't 'miss' a particular word, leave it out.

* Line breaks are crucial in 'free' and 'found' verse, so get the children to experiment with different layouts (much easier on the computer, of course).

 

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