"Borrowed Words"

[Tinker]

Explore the Craft of Writing Poetry
Invented Forms

Borrowed Words  -  Throughout the ages, poets have used what surrounds them to create art. The following are some invented forms that fall under the genre that I call "borrowed" poetry.    When borrowing other's work, be sure to credit the original 

• Cento Verse Latin for patchwork, Verse made up of a medley of lines from the work or works of some well known poet. Verse in this genre dates back to ancient Rome.

  Natures Notes, A Patchwork of Emily Dickinson's World by Judi Van Gorder

  XXII	L2	He did not know I saw
  XXIV	L1	A Narrow fellow in the grass
  XXV	L13	I feel as if the grass were pleased
  XXVI	L3	A green chill upon the heat
  XXXVII	L1	The wind begun to rock the grass
  XXVII	L5	The leaves unhooked themselves from trees
  XXXIX	L7	Write me how many notes there be.

  We Hold These Truths by Judi Van Gorder
  Cento by Jan Haag

• Chance Poetry is verse using "chance methods" like opening a dictionary or any book, close your eyes and put your finger on the page, using the words selected at random for the basis of the poem or drawing words at random from prewritten cards then using those words in the order drawn for the poem's vocabulary. American poets Jackson MacLow and John Cage have been forerunners in this avant garde poetic genre. Any chance method to select the words will do.

  The Assasination by Donald Justice (1925-2004)
  (Justice wrote words on cards and drew them randomly to compose this poem.)
  
  It begins again, the nocturnal pulse.
  It courses through the cables laid for it.
  It mounts to the chandeliers and beats there, hotly.
  We are too close. Too late, we would move back.
  We are involved with the surge.
  Now it bursts. Now it has been announced.
  Now it is being soaked up by newspapers.
  Now it is running through the streets.
  The crowd has it. The woman selling carnations
  And the man in the straw hat stand with it in their shoes.
  Here is the red marquee it sheltered under.
  Here is the ballroom, here
  The sadly various orchestra led
  By a single gesture. My arms open.
  It enters. Look, we are dancing.

• Dada is a movement beyond verse, it included all artistic endeavors. Initiated in Zurich in 1916 by 2 Romanians, it grew throughout Europe and finally across the ocean to the US. It is rebellion against the established norm.

  As a verse form, dada is basically taking random words and in the sequence of receipt relating those words as your poem. In my opinion it is much like a "found poem" but with a bit less thought and craft.

  Basically the instruction in the NPEOPP for writing dada verse is: Take a newspaper article and cut it up and put it in a bag. Then draw the words blindly one by one from the bag. Arrange those words in the sequence they are drawn onto a page to create your poem. "copy conscientiously / the poem will resemble you." It seems to be a collage of words and phrases outside the control of the poet.

• Erasure Verse is a poem made up of the leftovers after words from a written piece, prose or verse, have been erased. The following is an Erasure poem, made from words leftover from taking an erasure to the description below on the Found Poem.

  erasure by Judi Van Gorder
  
  gathering
  the environment
  a snatch
  Printed collage
  
  arrangement to create
  different things
  anything
  poet's
  larger words.

• The Flarf is a genre of verse that I am still trying to wrap my brain around. It is an internet dependant form that combines unusual phrases from google searches. Flarfs have been published in Magazines and Anthologies and seem to me to be pretty much nonsense poems but they are an increasingly popular if not contraversial form. My understanding is that the poet snatches phrases from incongruous word searches on google. It has even extended beyond google to searches on twitter, Facebook and other internet driven entities. Try searching for engine and clown together and see what google comes up with. Then snatch phrases from the various sites.

  This borrowed word form is the brain child of Gary Sullivan who said "I found the word flarf online on a police blotter where some stoner had described marijuana as flarfy," and subsequently came up with the concept to join incongruous words in a google search and then snatch phrases from the results and called it Flarfing. The poem is meant to be edgy, un PC, expose the aweful and in general be unsettling.

• A Found Poem is the gathering and assembling of grouped words "found" in the environment and incorporating the "found" phrases and words into a larger poetic piece. It is a "snatch of poetry" NPOPP. Printed images or phrases assembled in a literary collage. The lineal arrangement rearranges the phrases to create an entirely different piece. It presents things found in the poet's surroundings such as a news article, a poem, letters, dialogue or anything. The poetry is much larger than the "found lines" that intersperse the poet's words.

  It was recognized in the 20th century and one of the more prominent series of Found poems is Ezra Pound's Cantos which includes "real" letters between Jefferson and Adams, Papal documents, poems by Cavalcanti, government and bank documents.

  The form is strophic without prescribed structure. The following is a found poem using snippets of a posted conversation of members of a poetic community.

  found poetry by Rex Allen Brewer
  
  trying history
  the Dolores River
  northwest
  into the valley
  Lost Canyon road
  further if you take the highway
  curious to know
  who named the river
  before the padres
  Escalanté and Dominguez
  The River of Sorrows
  a small river
  one you can get to know

• Golden Shovel was introduced by award winning American poet, Terrance Hayes.  The form is named for the first poem he wrote using the technique which changes a line of an existing poem to the end words of a new poem. Simply choose a line of poetry from any poem previously written. Use each word of that line in sequence as the end word of the new poem. If you choose a five word line, your poem will be 5 lines long.

  It’s Cold Out There
  
  The frigid winter nights, comforting to some
  conjure dreams of home and other things.
  I watch as weather changes, varied are
  impediments to travel, rain, snow, and never
  warm even when the sky is clear.
                                          ~~ Judi Van Gorder
  “Some things are never clear.” L1 Voice Ways by Robert Frost
   

• Spoem or Spoemetry is verse made from the subject lines of spam e-mail messages.

  The originator is speculative, since many writers and bloggers have claimed to be responsible. The form seems to have first shown up in 1999 and has been the theme of poetry contests, blogs and journals. A book entitled 'Spam: E-mail Inspired Poems' by Ben Myers was published in 2008 by Blackheath Books Myers claims to have been writing spam poems since 1999.

  The key is to find the unexpected. The structure can be at the poet's discretion.

• Slightly different in nature but still borrowing ideas and structure from another verse are:

  Afflatus
  Projacking

[Tinker]

Cento Verse

We hold these truths

All men are created equal,
          they are endowed by their Creator
          with certain inalienable rights,
these are life,
                  liberty
and pursuit of happiness.

We the People in Order to form
                           a more perfect Union,
establish Justice,
         insure domestic Tranquility,
                 provide common defense,
                           promote general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty
                  to ourselves and our Posterity,
                  do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.

No laws respecting establishment of religion,
                             or prohibiting free exercise thereof;
or abridging freedom of speech,
                                                   or of press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition for a redress of grievances.

The right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
                      shall not be infringed
No Soldier shall,
                 in time of peace be quartered in any house,
                 without the consent of the Owner

The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
                houses, papers, and effects,
                against unreasonable searches and seizures,
No Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause.

No person held to answer for a capital,
                or infamous crime,
                unless on presentment, indictment
except in land or naval forces, or Militia,
                when in service in time of War or public danger;
  nor for the same offence twice;
               nor compelled in criminal case
               to witness against himself,
nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property,
              without due process of law;
nor private property taken for public use,
              without just compensation.

In criminal prosecutions,
                 the accused shall enjoy a speedy and public trial,
                                           by an impartial jury.
In Suits at common law,
                 the right of trial by jury shall be preserved,
                             and no fact tried by a jury,
shall be otherwise re-examined
                 than according to rules of common law.
Excessive bail shall not be required,
                  nor excessive fines,
                             nor cruel and unusual punishments.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude
                             shall exist in the United States.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States,
                        and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,
                        are citizens of the United States
                                 and of the State wherein they reside.
No State shall make or enforce any law
                       which shall abridge the privileges or immunities
                       of citizens nor any State deprive any person of life,
liberty, or property,
             without due process of law;
                       nor deny any person equal protection of the laws.

Stanza 1 phrases from the preamble to the US Declaration of Independence.
Stanza 2 phrases from the intro to the Constitution of the United States of America
Stanza 3 phrases from Bill of Rights Amendment 1
Stanza 4 phrases from Bill of Rights Amendment 2 and 3
Stanza 5 phrases from Bill of Rights Amendment 4 and 5
Stanza 6 phrases from Bill of Rights Amendment 6,7 and 8
Stanza 7 phrases from Bill of Rights Amendment 13 and 14