found poem

found poem – Paris, spring 2013

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Mais il portait sur toute chose le regard
d’un artiste supérieur, sensible à la secrète
poésie du réel et sachant
l’exprimer dans un langage inédit.

In life we do things, some we wish we had never done
certaines choses peuvent se dire
some we wish we could replay a million times in our heads
bien sûr, avec des mots
but they all make us who we are
d’autres avec des gestes
and in the end they shape every detail about us.

mais il y a aussi des moments où l’on reste sans voix
if we were to reverse any of them, we wouldn’t be
the person we are.  So just live, make mistakes
complètement perdu est désorienté
have wonderful memories
on ne sais plus que faire
but never ever second guess who you are
where you have been,
and most importantly
where it is you’re going.
à ce moment commence la danse.

La poésie est un sport extrême

Notes on locations:  Musée de L’Orangerie, street, Merci store (quotation from Pina Bausch), toilet door (really).

found poem – Stockholm, spring 2013

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In February the living stood still.

“I will so enjoy living in my cabin that I will probably end up dying here”
As though he had been able to predict the future,
he died on the beach below the cabin.

Rejoice

The birds flew unwillingly and the soul chafed against the landscape as a boat chafes against the pier it lies moored to.

Born originals, how comes it to pass, that we die copies?
Happiness hates the timid.

The trees stood with their backs turned towards me.
The deep snow was measured with dead straws.

Il faut travailler.

The footprints few old out on the crusts
Under a tarpaulin language pined

These shoes belonged to Selma Lagerlöf
who gained inspiration for her first book,
The Saga of Gösta Berling,
while taking a walk during her time at teachers college.

One day something came up to the window.
Work dropped, I looked up.

“How pitiful to strive to be someone or something in the motley crowd
of 1.4 billion two-legged tailless apes,
running around on our revolving earth projectile”.

You will often find the poet sitting at the piano.

Early in life, he had learnt to live in a state of constant preparedness to move.

The colours flared.  Everything turned round
The earth and I sprang towards each other.

What did you learn for the future?

Notes on locations:  Tomas Tranströmer exhibition at the Nobel Museum including his poem ‘Face to Face’, Le Corbusier exhibition at Moderna Museet, Poster.  Other lines are taken from other sources in the Nobel Museum including quotations from Albert Einstein, Louis Pasteur, Edward Young, Eugene O’Neill and Alfred Nobel.  

found poems thoughts

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After discovering/creating my first found poem, I found that there were two other poems present in my photos from cities I visited last year.  Somehow, working on these has been one of the most joyful things I have ever done with my writing.  I love the idea of poems lurking all over the place, and it takes a person to connect with them and make them visible to other people.

This collaborative approach to being alive is a thread that runs through a lot of my work.  In surfing, while the sea is beautiful by itself, the presence of a surfer makes a wave into something else.  The interaction of the the surfer with the forces of the wave reveals something that is powerful and profound about how we live our lives in  collaboration with our circumstances.  We are not defined by circumstances, but we are always living our lives within them.  Finding the most beautiful way to relate to our circumstances takes vision,  power, grace and practice.

A found poem is an example of a beautiful relationship to the world around us.

found poem – Brussels, autumn 2014, translation

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The freedom to be yourself.
Welcome! Bienvenue! Wilkom!
Home.
‘Tutu’ pendant light.

Happiness often sneaks in
through a door
you did not know
was open.

For me it’s about being
more than a man.
The flat street lined with poplars, stretched out before them
a fragment of a free universe.

Welcome.
Dream of honey.
Smoking is not allowed in our hotel rooms.
If you do so, you will be fined €150.

Don’t forget to toast me!

To go further.
Haven’t we all the same Father?
Were we not created by one God?

Summon the heroes.
Start each day like it’s your birthday.
Spark joy.

Passing friend, may this visit stay with you as a moment of peace.

Note: The location of this poem in the title was originally ‘city’.  I decided to add the actual location in case it enhanced the reader’s experience.

found poem – Brussels, autumn 2014

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The freedom to be yourself.
Welcome! Bienvenue! Wilkom!
Home.
Suspension “tutu”.

Happiness often sneaks in
through a door
you did not know
was open.

Il s’agit pour moi
d’être plus qu’un homme.
La route plate bordée de peupliers,
étirait devant eux
un fragment du libre univers.

Welcome.
Rêve de miel.
Smoking is not allowed in our hotel rooms.
If you do so, you will be fined €150.

Don’t forget to toast me!

Pour aller plus loin.
N’avons nous pas tous un seul père?
Un seul dieu ne nous a-t-il pas crées?

Summon the heroes.
Start each day like it’s your birthday.
Spark joy.

Ami de passage, que cette visite reste en toi comme un moment de paix.

Notes on locations: Marco Polo store, Made in Louise hotel (MIL), MIL, Max Yamamoto store, MIL, MIL, MIL, Marguerite Yourcenar Park, Grand Synagogue de Bruxelles, Synagogue, Poster for concert, Subdued store, advertisement, sign in Église Notre Dame du Sablon, Brussels.

Note: The location of this poem in the title was originally ‘city’.  I decided to add the actual location in case it enhanced the reader’s experience.