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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. See also: Steaming Past and Little Lives
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. See How to Make a Mummy
* Get the children to see if they can 'find' any poems in
pieces of prose that they have already written.
* Poems needn't have 'proper' sentences.
* Stress that some words are more important than others.
* Rule of thumb: If the poem won't 'miss' a certain word,
leave it out.
* Layout is a matter of choice, not of right or wrong.
* 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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Found Poetry 2
