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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

A Found Poem

Wikipedia defines found poetry as: "a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and re-framing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text, thus imparting new meaning."

Last week was my spring break and during those glorious, lazy days at home I found myself listening to music a lot.  I listened to my old favorites and downloaded some new favorites to enjoy.  Apparently, the music was making quite an impact on me because I would catch myself singing favorite bits and pieces of those songs even when I wasn't listening.

Once I noticed how the lyrics were getting stuck in my head, I started thinking about how powerful music is and then, how music is a form of poetry.  I kept thinking there must be some way to turn all that music and thinking into a slice.  Yesterday I spent some time looking up lyrics on www.metrolyrics.com and copying the pieces that I found most meaningful into a Word document.  I had no idea where I was going with that process but I assumed I would figure it out eventually.

Today I started thinking that maybe I could find and highlight individual words in each set of lyrics that I copied that would make a poem.  That was my grand plan.  And then I sat down and started rereading the snippets of lyrics that I had and realized that combined together they made an interesting poem that went well together and flowed nicely.  And so...my slice for today was born!  Maybe you will recognize some of the lyrics!  I have no idea if I gave proper credit in the correct way, but I did the best I could without pulling out the college APA/MLA style textbook.



You've got
The most unbelievable blue eyes I've ever seen
You've got
Me almost melting away
As we lay there
Under a blue sky with pure white stars
Exotic sweetness
A magical time
Say it, say it again
I love you always forever
Near or far, closer together
Everywhere I will be with you
Everything I will do for you

Yeah, I was caught somewhere between
A woman and a child
One restless summer
We found love, growing wild
On the banks of the river,
On a well beaten path
It's funny how those memories they last             
Like strawberry wine and seventeen
The hot July moon saw everything
My first taste of love, oh, bittersweet

If I could walk on water
If I could tell you what's next
Make you believe
Make you forget
So come on, get higher, loosen my lips
Faith and desire and the swing of your hips
Just pull me down hard and drown me in love

Happy is the heart that still feels pain
Darkness drains and light will come again
Swing open up your chest and let it in
Just let the love, love, love begin

When I look into your eyes
It's like watching the night sky
Or a beautiful sunrise
Well there's so much they hold
And just like them old stars
I see that you've come so far
To be right where you are

Raindrops, rolling off my brim
Streetlights, got the pavement glistening
Touchdown, I fall into your arms
Right where I belong, your everlasting arms
Where would I be, without you
I'd be packing my bags where I'd need to stay
I'd be chasing every breeze that blows my way
I've been building my kingdom just to watch it fade away,
It's true
That's me without you!



Lyrics from www.metrolyrics.com

Stanza 1: I Love You Always Forever, sung by Donna Lewis
Stanza 2: Strawberry Wine, sung by Deana Carter
Stanza 3: Come on Get Higher, sung by Matt Nathanson
Stanza 4: Everybody, sung by Ingrid Michaelson
Stanza 5: I Won’t Give Up, sung by Jason Mraz
Stanza 6: Me Without You, sung by Toby Mac

Wordle: Love

7 comments:

  1. I love hearing about the creative process. Your poem works so well with all the words. Seems like it must've taken a while. I could sing some of the lines in my head, and then the poem had its own life, its own voice. I am posting a found poem tomorrow. (Trying to post a poem a day for NPM.) I'll link back to yours, OK?

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    1. Absolutely! I will look forward to checking out your found poem tomorrow too!

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  2. Amazing how such different songs combine to create this poem! Way to start a new genre.

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  3. Wow, this is really awesome. I absolutely love the way you created this poem, it flows and is such a creative idea. The other day I copied in lyrics from two songs that had been in my head to make a wordle, that was kind of cool. It put words together, like it does, in ways that were new and gave me some lines for a poem. I think I will try this sometime too, really enjoyed it!

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    1. Funny...I thought about taking all the lines and making a Wordle too! Maybe that will be tomorrow's idea. Thanks!

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    2. I couldn't wait...I played with Wordle and liked the way it turned out. Might be another poem in there somewhere! I like that the word "love" stood out so much from the rest.

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  4. It turned out to be an entire story, Robin! A love story, too, which is just great, & great that you did the wordle, & love is right out there! I love hearing about your process, a kind of serendipity that led to some work I think too! Loved seeing what you did!

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