Look what I found!

Found Poem

Existing text

Refashioned

Reordered

Poetic collage

     Have you figured out today's poetic form?  Yes, it's the found poem!  I actually tried to define it above using a found poem.  If you're not quite following me, visit www.poets.org for the full definition.  See if you can identify the phrases above in their definition.  

     I first learned about found poetry from our school librarian.  She lead a fun lesson on this poetry form using Iroquois legends.  I loved seeing my students pick and choose words that spoke to them as they created a new version of such old stories.  Found poems can come from anywhere: newspapers, street signs, magazines, letters, and poems.  I am a huge fan of famous quotes.  Today, I found a poem in quotes about writing...

How to be a writer

found by Melinda Harvey

Anyone can become a writer

Don't wait for an idea!

Start writing about something.

Love the writing, the sound of the word.

Read a lot.

Don't tell me the moon is shining, 

let her scream.

Just keep looking, paying attention.

It's fine to exaggerate.

Start thinking about the readers.

Make someone else care about it,

all in a few pages

Simple as that.

The trick is staying a writer

     I am grateful to Charlene Profiri, children's author, who keeps a great list of quotes about writing on her website.  It is there that I found this poem!  Be on the look out today for sources of new poetry...your science book, the posters in your classroom, even at the hockey rink...words are lurking everwhere waiting for you to find them and put them into a poem.  Share what you find in the comments so we can all enjoy it!