Found Poem + Reflection

Cold Sweat

His eyes open slowly

and look down.

Left elbow up on the arm rest.

A patch of dark blood on the spring faucet of the cooler.

Wound inside of his shirt.

The water runs down his chin.

Pack of cigarettes in his pocket,

blood stained, clean.

Match,

lights,

deep drag,

smoke-out in the swivel chair.

The sounds stop,

he presses the button,

begins to speak.

Murder, check, check, double check.

Cold Killer, you picked wrong.

The purpose of a found poem is to find beautiful poetry in everyday language. You have to find the diamond in the rough polish it and present it. I found it kind of difficult, at first, to create a found poem out of random words. But then I read the piece and tried to understand the mood of the piece and the message of the piece of writing. My piece of writing was from what seemed to be a spy- agent type novel about murder and deception. The actual passage was about when the character struggles through a wounded injury and in his painful desperation fumbles for a pack of cigarettes.

I tried to convey a fearful struggling tone but one that was also confident, and headstrong at the same time, to convey a message of bravery and true stoicism two qualities that every good agent- spy should have. My poem is describing what the agent is going through. However on a deeper level, I hope the reader understands how the agent feels, and how the agent gains hope throughout the poem right around the same time he is reaching for his cigarettes.

I am all around pleased with how my poem turned out however, there are things I would want to revise given the proper time and freedom with words. I don't like how the beginning of my poem is very repetitive always describing what the character is doing at the time with no real break. I like the middle to end part very much. It is a little ambiguous but I feel conveys a good point, it goes from the turning point of the poem and shows how the agent regains his agent cool and continues on being an agent. Sort of like how James Bond recuperates after a big fight with the bad guy but then immediately returns to being amazing.

I followed the rules extremely closely, everything in the poem was in the passage, the words are in the order I found them and every word there serves a purpose. I really feel like I deserve an "A” for this. The breaking I used with the one word lines serve to break up the poem. Each line is supposed to portray a different aspect of the poem. Much like how I pieced the poem from random words. Also the title is ironic within itself. It is ironic because even though the agent nearly just got killed it is the cigarettes that are killing him. The title was supposed to show how when the agent probably blames all his near death experiences on his job they are actually his fault for choosing such a hectic job and lifestyle and smoking cigarettes in addition to that.