Found Poem.

 
FOUND POETRY
by Gabriel Rosenstock

Not everyone can write a poem but there’s no reason why you can’t find one! I found one, below.

What’s a found poem? Here’s a dictionary definition from Merriam-Webster: ”a poem consisting of words found in a non-poetic context (such as a product label) and usually broken into lines that convey a verse rhythm.”

In his Introduction to Poetry(1986), Louis Simpson widens the choice: “It may be from a news item, advertisement, handbook, travel book, or catalogue  . . .” So, get started!

Blaise Cendrars (1887 – 1961) wrote a lineated version of an extract from a 19th-century travel book about the natives of Tonga in Oceania.

Dadaists and Surrealists loved found poetry. But it is Ezra Pound that has a special place in the history of found poetry, according to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics: his Cantos contain letters by Thomas Jefferson, papal documents, extracts from Confucius, government documents, stuff from the bank and the devil knows what else. My found poem comes from an Irish-language primer.
A Found Bilingual Poem
Extracted from An introduction to the Irish language

by William Neilson, (1774 -1821)

Is dorcha an oíche í

It is a dark night

‘Bhfuil an chloch sin trom?

Is that stone heavy?

Dein deoch the dhom

Make a warm drink for me

A ndearna tú an deoch te?

Did you make the drink warm?

Tá mo chos frithir

My foot is sore

An míle armach ainmneach eolach

The hero valiant, renowned and learned

Déadgheal, dealbhtha, meanmnach, treorach

White-tooth’d, graceful, magnanimous, vigorous

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