Poetry Prompt #8: Questions and Answers, In No Particular Order
A found poetry prompt
Before we get into it this week’s prompt, there’s a few things that have been happening that I want to share with you.
I was spotted attending a recent wedding by that infamous Scoop Sterling. You can read about it here. I will not be taking any questions regarding Mr Yeti.
Stave and Stanza is going to be monthly rather than fortnightly due to time constraints. If you don’t know about Stave and Stanza, it is my now monthly newsletter summing up the news from Poetry and Music substackers and popping it into one easy to find place. I share news such as publications, releases, who’s recording, live performances etc. Follow the link above to subscribe.
I am reframing the way I approach a writing desert. I’m not in a desert, I’ve just been holed up in one room of my creative house and need to change rooms for a bit. I enjoy being creative, I enjoy sharing that with you, and I enjoy seeing your creativity too. With that in mind…I have a third newsletter. It’ll be adhoc due to the aforementioned time constraints. But if you’re interested in joining me in developing other creative skills including photography, crochet, drawing and more, you can subscribe to The Creative Nook here. (Just please don’t tell
that I’ve not sorted out the About Page yet! I promise I’ll do it soon!)
Sarah Kay, the American spoken word poet, founder of Project V.O.I.C.E and my first poetry crush published her first collection, No Matter The Wreckage in 2014. Within this brutally raw and healing collection, is a found poem that has been gathered together from dropped pieces of conversations. Questions and Answers, In No Particular Order let us peer through the keyhole into the lives of strangers.
I love this idea, bits of conversation gathered and sewn together, some evidence of the colourful lives surrounding us that we have no idea are happening. I’ve tried to collect phrases and stories before. In fact I wrote a poem about it a couple of years ago, I think the final stanza sums it up:
I collect the tales that others discard,
Polish them up until they shine,
And retell them before they die.
A found poem is a poem created by taking words or phrases from other sources and reframing them into a poem. A typical example of this is the blackout poems where poets have taken a marker to remove text from a page in a novel and leave just a few words or phrases to create a poem
This week, instead of collecting overheard phrases, I found that my newsletter inbox is filled with various conversations based on the newsletter titles. So I’ve pulled these together to create this week’s found poem. I still need to work on the flow of my found poems, it’s something I’ve yet to nail, but I’m still pretty pleased with this one.
Conversations of Newsletters
5 reasons why your poems get declined Copy & paste We're looking for a symphony of voices A new exciting discovery All that jazz Crunch the morning When to burn it all down and how to rise from the ashes While the iron is hot Back on the bus Let's Discuss Second Chances. On my sketchbooks The early bird drops the worm How do I stop worrying? Pick my brain On waking early, whenever that is Why schools should have a hyper-local blog Scared to feel too much Sometimes writing saves us And I don't get paid enough for that
If you’re interested in any of these headlines, these newsletters have come from the following publications:
¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦¦ ¦¦¦¦ ¦¦Thank you for sharing my poetry and for the lovely comments left. It’s wonderful to know that other people are connecting to my poetry. I have also been enjoying the poems and other creativity you have shared with me, and would love to see more, so please keep doing so!
Fun irony in these lines of the found poem:
"5 reasons why your poems get declined
Copy & paste
We're looking for a symphony of voices"
Thanks very much for the mention :-) Great idea, so original!