As I read this, I can only begin to think how this poem makes sense? What really is going on here that so few people know? Hopefully my explanation will be understandable as to how I came to this position. The purpose of a found poem is to take my interpretation of a text, in this case, a TV Listing from March 2nd, and be able to carve up something out of it. I was able to extract words and phrases that I enjoyed or that amused me, and hopefully those words that were extremely stellar were able to make the cut into the final draft of the poem. Found poems are for total and complete joy. They are actually quite simple and easy to write. This poem actually when read independently make no sense whatsoever but if the poem is read aloud and with emphasis, there can be a clear deliverance of the understanding of the poem. When I had written this piece I was able to understand that poetry does not have to have any rhyme or reason. The more random it is, the better. For things of a minimum similarity to come together like that make this poem really special. I had difficult writing this poem in respect that it is extremely hard to take ideas from Roman Polanski’s thriller all the way to Bermuda Triangle. The way that these are able to fit together make the poem that much more interesting to read. The tone of my poem is that very similar to a children’s story. Simple two or three word lines that make up a scene, and when the stanza is completed, a scene in a picture book is mapped out. I am very pleased the way my poem turned out. I was really glad to be able to convey my message across of randomness but also portraying a story. This poem can be perceived that it took no work, or very hard work. But that doesn’t matter, the fact that it is entertaining to othersis an imperative aspect of poetry.
I've never been particularly good at writing poetry, and writing a poem that's meant to be "found" in another piece of writing was no different. In face, I found writing this found poem to be more difficult that writing a "regular" poem. I'm sure others found this to be an easy task, considering the words are right there for you in whatever the prose may be-for me it was a screen play-but I felt as if this was limiting my creativity. This exercise required us to take words out of a piece in the order they appeared and make it sound poetic. Although I was lucky and my words came out sounding like a story, I felt as if I was hindered.
I didn't add any extraneous words, but I admit that I was more worried about sense rather than sound. Luckily for me, it sounded good while also making a lot of sense. I definitely kept the words in the right order and I edited the piece four times to make sure all of the "dead" words were removed. I tried to make it break at points when I though the story changed. If you read my poem, it tells a story of murder. I felt like my title was appropriate as well. Although those words were not in the found poem itself, I thought it would establish some sort of time line. To me this is effective because it tells you when the events leading up to the murder started. It's also kind of creepy because you don't know when the poem itself is taking place. "Last May," are when the events started, but when is "last May" in relation to right now? I look at my poem and I think of it as a piece of a bigger picture-maybe because it is one-that has an entire background as to why, who, and where.
I'm pretty happy with how the overall piece turned out, but getting to this point was not an easy task.
Who posed on the roof of a house Subtly changing the lights into a maze of inscrutable runes
Evoked by the varying lights of unusual angles to rise to towering heights upon the synchronized shots
Transform a tank into a toy to refrain from coloring the images themselves
Only the arrangement of the shots do we easily surrender in a state between walking and sleeping
Who usually admits of diverse interpretations about the true objects of their
Leanings and longings
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Athirst and Desert
Silent sentinels stand, thousands upon thousands.
Some leaning upon the pier-heads, tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks.
But look! Here come more crowds.
Pacing Straight for the water, bound for a dive.
And there they stand.
They come from lanes and alleys,
Streets and avenues.
North, East, South, West.
Here they all unite.
Does the magnetic needles of the compasses attract them tither?
Take any path you please.
One carries you down and leaves you there by a pool in the stream.
The most absent-minded of men in his deepest reveries.
Set his feet a-going.
And he will lead you to water.
If water there be in that region.
Athirst and desert are wedded forever.
A Reflection on Athirst and Desert
This week I wrote a found poem based off a passage of Moby Dick.The 19th century language was poetic and inspired me to write a poem only using certain words, phrases, and sections.In my opinion the poem I produced is poetic, and it sounds good even though it doesn't make any sense.The poem I produced isn't the best in the world, but it's good by my standards.
Deciding which words to put into my poem was difficult and tedious.It was taking a long time so I decided to take a different method.I took out a highlighter and highlighted all the words that caught my attention.I then took these words and put them together in order, and from then I refined my poem three times until I had my finished product.The message I hoped to communicate in my poem was that people are naturally drawn to water, and come from all over to see it.The literature I got it from is from the 19th century, and I find that the passage's message which I transferred to my poem is still the same.It conveyed that people are drawn to water which is still very true, some of the most popular vacation destinations are islands and beaches.That is why I kept the integrity of the image of the passage and put it in my poem.
I think I deserve an A on this assignment, because I put a lot of effort into it and think that it is one of my better works.I experimented with words to make it sound interesting, which was the longest step in making my poem.I edited my poem three times taking out words that interrupted the poem's flow.I think this made the poem more appealing to the ears.I broke the lines in my poem where I thought that there should be a pause to emphasize the poem's flow.The title I gave the poem is not totally effective in expressing the image of the poem, but it is from what I think is the most poetic line in my poem so I thought it deserved the place of title.
Writing my found poem was both different and interesting to me, I learned a new form or poem writing, which was pretty cool. This assignment was compared to Michael Angelo's sculpting. Michael ANgelo once said that the sculptures were inside the stone, the stone just had to be chiseled away. Well with my found poem the poem was already in the passage the words just had to be taken out and rearranged. Well, rearranging the already arranged words was my English assignment and that's why I wrote a found poem. From this assignment I learned the beauty of words. Especially rhythm; in the past I used to think every word in every line had to make sense. I learned writing could be beautiful an not make sense. Everyone can interpret my writing in his or her own way. This poem didn't exactly come naturally to me; it wasn't easy or difficult writing this poem it was just different. To start off I carefully choose out words that sounded interesting. Then I placed the words into an order that flowed to me.
First off I'd like to say that i really enjoyed writing and editing this piece. It taught me a lot of things that i didn't really notice before. First of all i never actually thought of the idea of looking for poetry inside a random piece of literature. I really had fun and was consistently surprised to find how easily the whole thing just came into place. I barley finished the first half of the work of literature Moby Dick when I realized I already had a full page of poetry. So when I first began to read that piece of literature I realized a lot of it had to do with a man. So instantly I came up with the idea of basing this entire poem on the life of a man or the point of view of a man. So basically I tried to find phrases and words that could describe different things about that man. And fortunately for me, I realized I had a lot of things I could have used. When I put my piece of poetry together I really wanted to convey a message of the hardships a man could feel in his life and how uniting and becoming together could really help out a society or an individual. At least in my head that's' what I hear when I read this poem. What I really love about the way I wrote this poem is that I followed the rules exactly 99.9% perfectly. I wrote everything in order and in context, the only difference is I took out the word "infallibly" from the line "And he will (infallibly) lead you to water." I just didn't think that word fit in with the poem and I didn't believe it gave the poem a good sound. So for all it was worth, I really enjoyed writing this poem and maybe I'll write another one in my writers notebook soon.