Here’s a sample of a found poem I made for you. I “lifted these words from Annie Dillard’s Essay “Living Like Weasels” I added ONE word in the poem below. All the other words are Dillard’s, but they are rearranged to create my own images and ideas.
The Mind is Single
It’s down to a choice:
yield or
live to dangle from the most tender necessity.
I should have held on
to explore the wild moment,
to take the particular sense
and blow it to the evening.
Last week, I knew, and then it caught my eye:
a yellow sunset of intimate airborn air
alternating and bending,
in the beautiful bottomland of field and grasses.
I remember watching, pleading, and thrusting my spirit-spray skyward
stunned-still and emptied and shattered,
sweet thoughts tangled in wild roots and rose.
My brain is a fierce, private place. I hold it aloft, precisely, to the wind.
I blink. I breathe. Who knows?
Post your "found" poems here in the comment box. I look forward to reading these and sharing the best ones in class.
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ReplyDeleteWe are accustomed to living our lives in succession
ReplyDeleteDay by day
Night by night
We stick in our ways
We need to step out
Use our imaginations
Its time to experience the world
Take a look
Notice the landscape
Make improvements in our lives and others frequently
Mystery
ReplyDeleteFound Poem, based on Henry David Thoreau’s novel Walden
In a certain season, perhaps a summer afternoon
A man surveyed the village and took everything.
I discovered him in a house, as dusty as it was.
He sat by a cleaver, a strange character he was
But with my experience and intellect, I detected his lie.
Regretting what he did, he spoke the truth.
It was not nonsense, but my mind was made up, he had to go to jail.
His motive was good, but it was only an excuse.
I did propose a letter to consider that he be out by winter.
Now the case was over, so I left as time went on.
Poem
ReplyDeleteI am the lover of a dear friend. I gave him my heart, For a thousand years and more, Till death do us apart. With the fear of losing you, I impress you with the words of harmony. We return to a world of reason and faith, where trust is an incredible puddle of emotions. Our fights are the infinite space of our own fiery love. But love, love is nothing but a Great storm of you and me
Man’s education has led him to believe that imitation is suicide. In this wide universe, it might as well be. You might think people are bad, but everyone is full of good, and a nourishing soul. Everyone has to power which resides in them, to see this goodness in us. We are given one face with which we leave impressions upon others, and with these impressions comes harmony, or chaos. However, most of us only half express ourselves. We let ourselves blend in with the rest of society, so that we are not remembered. We manifest cowards inside ourselves by setting restrictive boundries that we force ourselves to follow every day. We tell ourselves that something isn’t “politically correct” or it isn’t “appropriate”. This is what makes us conformist. Although, being conformist may keep the chaos and the dark at bay, it makes for a bland, tasteless society. It keeps the individuals within us. With this, his genius deserts him, leaving him stranded with nothing. Unfortunately, not everyone realizes that within them, their heart vibrates to a certain iron string. To find out who you truly are, you need to see the connection of events, look inside of you, delve through your mind, and read your thoughts. If you do not find who you really are, and break free from the bonds of regular society, your great soul has simply nothing to strive for.
ReplyDeleteA philosophers heart vibrates in harmony as stares into nature. They see hope and peace. Every man’s little mind is organized chaos. Sometimes full or good, other times dark. A great soul can be adored by a foolish genius. Little by little, a new destinies and realities are formed by its creators. Customs in society half express an impression, for better, or for worse. We all shall clean our immortal palms as our heart vibrates in harmony.
ReplyDeleteAs I sit watching the sunset,
ReplyDeleteI sit motionless.
Lily pads float on a pond next to an over grown path.
My eyes remain locked, as for blinking could shatter the enchantment.
As I walk through the wild rose,
I become one.
I calmly become wild, and feel myself unhinge and shatter.
My careless senses get the better of me.
The ribbon I once was, threaded from obedience and properness has left.
Blood pulses through me,
The shocking sensation of freedom leaves my hands trembling from the excitement.
It is the perfect freedom to stalk your calling.
I will not yield for obedience, nor will I be silent.
Instead, I will lunge through the window separating me from the careening splashdown of life.
I will regret nothing,
For I am dangling from life’s tender grasp.
My brain is a private place; unique and secret,
Only I know what it holds.
Man is conformity
ReplyDeleteImitation is suicide
Trust thyself
Be a non-conformist
Hold to the highest mind
Your own mind
Be a wise sprit
Think divine ideas
Be good and great
Put heart into work
Make your heart vibrate,
Make it vibrate to the iron strings
Don’t half express soul
Soar with a great mind
Life is like a weasel the earth is wild and full of absolute instinct
ReplyDeleteKilling or being stubborn are few of many traits
that we have exchanged when we glance into
each other’s souls alternating between expressions
The earth is full of fields and woods and every evening people would
Look up at the sky to watch the sunset as they swiveled their bodies
Around on the grass, for an instant everyone felt great
The earth is filled with many well muscled or soft-furred animals
But even the small ones can still be fierce just like a weasel
At fist sight these creature that were emerging from their slumber like us
Are full of stillness when conversing with other animals
The earth is enormous but is filled with twisted actions that locked each species
Into a deadly and unexpectedly overgrown violence for each other
But each species shines bright when together even with the nature
In its dismantled state of separation while simultaneously
All one big circle of life
The earth is always leaving our kind in a shocking state of mind where
Purity and our senses become our motive to remain in a peaceful state
We are all selfish in way, minds bend to the word necessity
Make us end up hating each other and dying over our wants and beliefs
The earth can always be uncomprehending to most people, but most of the time
People keep a calmly attitude when going about their everyday lives
Blinking or licking up an ice cream shows us how we can represent one single entity
Of our prolonged lives, as time passes by unremarked, all we can do is watch and wait
The earth is full of strength and endurance as humankind continues to improve our wellbeing
As humans we aren’t perfect, but we continue to make vows like help parts of this planet
Where some peoples’ lives are ruled by poverty, what drives to complete these goals
Is our obedience, the want for freedom of mind and body this is a proper way that
All humans should live by and understand because, without understanding and change,
Our affairs with each other would dangle into conflict and thus we would all scatter
Trust thyself
ReplyDeleteImitation is suicide
The power which resides in him is new in nature
It felled the forest, moved the fields, and drained the pond
We could you know
We can live any way we want
Grasp your one necessity and don’t let it go
The wide universe is full of good
Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist
Remember how to live
Where the mind is single
Do it now or you will have missed your chance
Poem: Annie Dillards, “Living Like Weasels”
ReplyDeleteHis Face was fierce.
Looking up at me.
A lovers gaze of
Deadly enemies.
I remember his black hole of eyes
He wanted to live,
Live a wild life.
He disappeared.
I missed my chance.
The enchantment shattered.
The sudden separation like
A blow to the gut.
I should have held on
just a rose, i am.
looking to seize death
without your perfect love.
Untitled
ReplyDeleteSilence, Stalk, Attack
Killing more bodies
The yank of separation between body and soul makes me tremble
Meeting our deadly enemies face to face is like rubbing balloons
Forced to suck the warm blood from their body
Moving on to approach other conflicts
Painlessly trying to remember nothing
Careless senses are a necessity
The fear of death is silent
Our minds being single makes us remember muteness
Blood and bone fill my view
Blink
It's still there
Hoping it was a dream
I pinch myself but I's still here