Poetry

Twice a year, I attend an ACA retreat in my area. I love these retreats because they are exceptionally fun. More importantly, I get to spend the long weekend with a group of people who understand me and love me just the way I am. They don't mind my social blunders like so many "normal" people I've encountered do. And so, I am free to be me without the stress of trying to be socially appropriate.

One of the activities I was introduced to at these meetings was found poetry. Found poetry is using words and phrases cut out of printed material in a new way. Found poetry has allowed me to explore poetry in a successful way. I love the works that I have created using this method and will share them, one at a time, here.

Here's how I do found poetry:

I chose a magazine to go through and create my poem exclusively from that one magazine. As I sit at the able with scissors in hand, I scan the ads, headlines, and paragraph headers (the larger print not the article content). Any word or phrase that jumps out at me gets cut out. When I get to the end of the magazine, I take all my cuttings and place them on a poster board (I usually use one that is cut in half) so I can see them all. Then I start rearranging them and removing some. Usually I'll see a pattern and that becomes my focus. It's easy to arrange them once I've recognized the pattern. Often I start with the end of the poem or the middle because that's what first caught my eye or "spoke to me". The completion of the poem usually comes like an epiphany. It's sudden and obvious. It feels much like the poem wrote itself. I read my poem and I'm always satisfied with it as is. Sometimes I find that I need to go back through the magazine to find a small word to make a phrase make sense...words like "a" or "the". Then I grab a glue stick and glue them all down before anything flies away.

I could write these poems anywhere but writing them at the retreat is more fun. The process often takes me a couple of days as I come and go from other activities but some form of companionship is always there. A friend might be sitting at the table with me working on their own project. Often there is a discussion or game going on in the room that is interesting to eavesdrop on. Discussions like, "How did Humpty Dumpty fall? Or was he pushed? And if so, by whom?" Games like Balderdash make for interesting listening as well. Once a poem is done, we usually display our works for others to read. The comments and compliments are always nice to receive.

As I share my poems, I'll explain them a little too. I hope you enjoy them.