Poetry Is Where You Find It

Poetry by Subtraction

Last year I was at a poetry workshop in which we were given several techniques to experiment with in writing poetry. One of those techniques was called "Poetry by subtraction." The facilitator passed out several pages taken from various magazines and old textbooks. The idea was to look at a prose passage and find the phrases that jumped out, then eliminate (subtract) all the other words to see what you come up with. I was given some pages from a travel guide (see above). You can see where I circled some words and marked out passages.

What follows is a poem taken directly from words and phrases excised from the travelogue.

Thirty miles west,

A ruined monument

is one fascinating sign to follow.

A million years ago

on a windless day

Abstractions

track mysteries.

See other examples here, then try it for yourself!

Found Poetry

The exercise above is a variation on the concept of "found poetry," in which one takes words and phrases from any number of sources: newspaper articles, obituaries, cookbooks, appliance instructions, etc. You can then arrange the words and phrases in any manner you choose, and in a collage.  With this technique, your poetry can morph into a visual arts piece, or a craft project as in this example from Art Journalist:

Both of these techniques can be fun exercises, and they may serve as a stimulus to creativity when you are not sure of what to write next.



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