I found this snippet of a note in my older son’s winter coat pocket. It reads “possible gifts,” with a bunch of dashes beneath it, as if he was beginning a list but never finished it. What were the gifts? Was it a Christmas list? I’ll never know. (He’ll certainly never tell me. His preferred answer when I ask him even the most innocuous things about school is “I’d rather not talk about that.”)
But I like it as a material object—it’s soft and wrinkly—and as a bit of found language. It feels like a reminder: possible gifts are everywhere.
Today, let’s play a bit with found language.
today’s exercise
Search for found language you might use in a poem. You can approach this in one of two ways:
You can just be on alert for little scraps of interesting language and note them down when you come across them. You might go searching for language more deliberately—perhaps by reading a nonfiction text in an area outside your usual topics, or by scanning through the radio and seeing if you hear anything interesting. You might also just keep an ear out as you’re walking around—bits of conversations can be such a rich source for new language. Jot down whatever phrases or sentences speak to you.
If you’d like to be a little more focused and shape a poem today, you can take those bits and turn them into a poem. Poet Leah Umansky has written some great pieces for The New York Times about found poems. She suggests cutting words and phrases out of a text like the newspaper then shaping the into a poem. I really like the way her approach turns writing into a really tactile process; I often find making a tangible thing a useful counterpoint when I’ve been feeling stuck or uninspired. Her directions for layout are here:
Layout. Before you start pasting your words into lines of poetry, lay them out and rearrange them. How will you create your poem? A poem is made up of lines that form groups of words called stanzas (Italian for room). Let your paper be the house of your poem. How many rooms will you build? One, two or more? Do you want long lines or short lines? Play with their position until you have them just right.
You may want to use a poetic device like a simile (a comparison with “like” or “as”), a metaphor (a comparison without “like” or “as”) or a rhyme. Maybe use repetition to play with sound, or cut two words and paste them together to make a word you can’t find. Try indenting lines or creating extra white space in or around your words and lines for a visual effect.
You can read the whole article, which includes complete directions, at this link; it’s a gift link, so if you don’t have an NYT subscription, it won’t count against your free monthly articles.
I’d love to hear from you. You can always reply to this email, comment below, or find me on twitter (@nancy_reddy) and instagram (@nancy.o.reddy).
ooh I found a great one this morning: shamaic healing/by appt only, in the window a hair salon in town. also! at first I mis-read it as "shampoo healing" which I also like