found poems thoughts

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 poems

Today while walking, I realised I had the components of what I will be calling a ‘found poem’. Found poetry is often compiled from a single prose text, but rearranged into verses and stanzas, but my found poems (hopefully there will be more than one) will consist of elements discovered during a day or few days in a foreign city (or home, come to think of it).

I have very much enjoyed making my first found poem.  The ‘true’ version of the poem is in English and French, but I will also translate it.

Oh, such a happy day!