Found Poems

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is It?

How to write a found poem

A found poem uses language from non-poetic contexts and turns it into poetry. Think of a collage — visual artists take scraps of newspaper, cloth, feathers, bottle caps, and create magic. You can do the same with language and poems.

Writing this type of poetry is a kind of treasure hunt. Search for interesting scraps of language, then put them together in different ways and see what comes out. Putting seemingly unrelated things together can create a kind of chemical spark, leading to surprising results.

There are no rules for found poetry, as long as you are careful to respect copyright.

© 2010 William Victor, S.L., All Rights Reserved.

 

Write a found poem based on a character, event, or theme from The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Remember that in a poem, every word, line break and mark of punctuation carries meaning, so have fun experimenting with repetition of words, alliteration, assonance or anything else that enhances what you’d like to say.