A Young Man (Found Poem)

A young man with a nondescript face

subtly changing the texture of the skin

a maze of inscrutable reminiscent formations

arose in varying lights

The future whimsically projecting

fathomable implications with

arrogance and ruthlessness

they rekindle sheer, weary shots

Conditions of a dreaming influence - the

course's desire intrigues them

Diverse patterns still existing in mass desires

Reflection:

A found poem is a type of poem that is created by taking words and phrases from another source and reframing them to create a poem of your own. It was my first time ever writing one, and it definitely wasn't that bad. I learned that I could actually write a pretty decent poem without frustrating myself over it. The thing I love best about my poem is that it seems really sophisticated. I don't really know exactly what I wrote about, but when you read it through it sounds like everything fits together perfectly.

I named my poem "A Young Man" because it's a very vague title. The whole poem is a little bit of a mystery describing the man and I think my title works. "A Young Man" leaves so many questions: How old is this man? How tall? What color hair? Eyes? You don't know from reading the poem and I like that about it. It's kind of like there's a secret about the man and the poem tries to answer questions but it isn't really getting anywhere and just leaves more mystery.

I think I followed the rules well if writing a Found Poem. I didn't add many extraneous words, only where they were needed, like between man and nondescript in the first line. Again, the poem doesn't make too much sense but it has a way about it that creates a picture in your mind about what's going on. I kept all the words and phrases in the order I found them and in between drafts I took out a few dead and unnecessary words.

The easiest thing about writing this piece was that I didn't have to worry about adding complex words and creating pictures in the reader's mind because they were already there to begin with. The hardest part was thinking of a title. I read the poem over and over again multiple times and all of a sudden it came to me. I think "A Young Man" fits the poem well. Overall, writing a Found Poem was a new experience for me and I found it pretty enjoyable. I will definitely think about writing more of them in the future.

-Allison F.