Wednesday, March 11, 2015

word sieve

a useful tool I have discovered 
in managing worry/stress/anxiety 
is creating found poetry

when my thoughts are swirling I put them through a word sieve and see what comes out


I keep it simple (and small)
using cut up book covers as a foundation


I pretty it up with a painted border


and when I'm done
I have a little something to go on when someone says, "what do you think?"


it's not that I didn't know what I think,
it's that I didn't know how to say it

some interesting thoughts about found poetry:

“Happy poets who write found poetry go pawing through popular culture like sculptors on trash heaps. They hold and wave aloft usable artifacts and fragments: jingles and ad copy, menus and broadcasts — all objet trouvés, the literary equivalents of Warhol’s Campbell’s soup cans and Duchamp’s bicycle. By entering a found text as a poem, the poet doubles its context. The original meaning remains intact, but now it swings between two poles. The poet adds, or at any rate increases, the element of delight. This is an urban, youthful, ironic, cruising kind of poetry. It serves up whole texts, or interrupted fragments of texts.” - Annie Dillard

"All writing is in fact cut ups. A collage of words read, heard, overhead. What else?" - William Burroughs

***
An Aside:

this duck walked right up to me in the park
he had such confidence
I had to wonder,
is it because he's tame?
or that he knows I am tame?



13 comments:

Kim Mailhot said...

Love your word sieve painting !! What a sweet and easy way to bring yourself into the moment.
I don't doubt that the duckie loved you. He probably saw your heart.

Alice G said...

I really like this idea and intend to start working on it tomorrow in the morning. Life is full of stress, but there is no reason that it can not be full of poetry too.

Thanks,

ag

janet said...

What a simply wonderful idea! Thank you for sharing it❤️

Halle said...

I was cutting up book pages just yesterday as well. I like to use the words in my art journals in a very similar way. Not quite as poetic though. :)

Gberger said...

I will bet that he recognizes your gentle, poet's soul.

Anonymous said...

What a great way to manage that chaoctic feeling. These are small gems for sure. I think you both are tame! You are the second person to quote Annie dillard lately. Think I'm gping to have to re-read "Teaching a Stone to Talk" xox

Caterina Giglio said...

you wordsmith you... and I think you must be the duck whisperer...

Annie Cholewa said...

I enjoy playing with found poetry too, although I am far less organised about it than you, I simply paste my words onto blank pages from the falling apart books I use. Maybe I should blog about it one day. Thank you for sharing the William Burroughs quote, it's not one I knew.

Annie Cholewa said...

I was so busy sayimg me too I forgot to compliment you on your striking pocket poems, oops.

Dreaming of Vintage said...

This is such a wonderful idea! I think I might give it a whirl! That duck is adorable. I always enjoy their visits to my backyard in the summer!

Ms. said...

Delightful. The little books, the choice of words...the way it comes together. And the duck made me smile.

marie said...

I really like your little bits of found poetry!

Jill said...

Wonderful...these are great!