Here I go again, borrowing from another slicer. Alan (Living Life Twice) played with Book Spine Poems but then he decided to carve out another form of poetry. He began cutting words and phrases from magazines and newspapers to create two wonderful collage poems.
That looked like fun. I think I could do that too. How hard could it be? Snip a word here. Snip a phrase there. Ta-dah! A poem is born!
Hold everything, I’m here to tell you it is not that easy. It has taken me a week, scouring the magazines that have been collecting dust on the desk, to find enough words/phrases to create a semblance of a poem. Alan made it seem easy breezy, but I found the editors of my magazines were not very helpful. Their headline/caption copy left me wanting. Finally (insert sigh here) I snipped myself a collection of possibilities.
Oh the possibilities abound with these words and phrases!
As I spread them out on the counter, I started looking for ideas that would go together. Start with this one. No not that one. Move this one before that one. Read it aloud. That doesn’t sound right. How about move this line up here. Cut that word out of the phrase. Over and over the process continued until I had something I could live with. The end result is below.
This was fun, but not as easy as I thought it would be. I think kids would have a blast with this, but they really need some time to collect the words/phrases. One class period would not be enough. Be sure you try it before turning it over to the kids.
So snip away!
elsie tries writing 
What a big smile your poems put on my face…..would love sharing this activity w/ my favorite granddaughter. I’m thinking she will really enjoy the challenge. Thanks for the idea.
What a creative and fun way to write poetry! It’s definitely something I’ll have to try next year! 🙂
This looks like lots of fun and although I’m sure it’s not easy to put the words and phrases together to form poetry, I’ll bet my students will find it an exciting approach to writing. Thanks so much for this idea, Elsie!
I love the spring one and the picture with all the possibilities waiting for your creative touch!
Love it! Today was spring, and your poem captures it.
Love this! I have tried a few of these – but only 4 lines! Yours was quite the challenge – but so enjoyable to read.
Really great, Elsie. I used to do this with my students (older) & they loved it too. I like that you found so many doubles (two words) & some longer phrases (like “for once, everyone…”), because it seems to make the poem go smoother.
That looks hard! I love both of the poems you came up with though!
This looks like lots of fun! Every time I see book spine poetry, I think that looks really HARD, wondering if this would be more up my alley. Hmmmm.
Great poem! Thank you!
What a fun idea! I’m going to have to give this a try! I think my students would love this!
I remember having to do this at college. We also had to create a theatrical scene – I had never ripped a page from a book before…. & I never have since! Using magazines & papers is different. I enjoyed your work.
What fun! I remember doing this many years ago, but I had forgotten all about it. Thanks for the reminder.
You have two slices here: one is about the process and one is the poem itself. The end result is incredible. I am not sure you could have written such a stunning poem without the confines of finding the lines in magazines. The best part is your reflection on the process, though. I could just imagine you picturing in your head classrooms filled with frustrated children and oblivious teachers urging them along. I think your wisdom may have averted many a classroom disaster!
I enjoyed reading both of your poems. I thought this was an idea that I might try also but it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe during spring break.
This is another example of being inspired and then inspiring. It will give me patience to try knowing it is not as easy as it seems at first. I hope Winter reads your Spring poem and gets the message!
These are impressive, Elsie. I’ve been working on my iPod poem for a couple of weeks and haven’t gotten anywhere with it!
We call this “Paste Pot Poetry”, another form of found poetry. It is fun but often difficult to find just the right words. I love your results. The spring one is bright and makes me happy to welcome spring. Thanks for sharing.
I love this idea, I’ll try it when I have more time. Thank yo for letting us know how much effort I takes to look effortless! This is wonderful.
Another fun poetry project, Elsie! We do this activity on parent’s visitation day – it’s rather lovely to see parents getting into the word selection game with their kids…and you are right, this is not as easy as it seems.
Very creative. Your poems have a different elegance about them. I also like how you shared your thinking from the writer’s process. I remember once writing a letter with favorite words and pictures. It was a lot of fun. I allowed myself to handwritten in between words.
I liked reading about your process AND reading your poems. Thanks for being honest about how hard it was. Your end results are very good. And I think the phrases themselves – the ones you chose to cut out in the first place, say a lot about the positive energy you hold.
I like the spring one best because it speaks to how I am feeling. BRING ON SPRING! This is a fun idea. It made me think about FOUND poems again even though it is different (a FOUND poem might be easier with a magazine article though – but have a very different goal/results I guess).
I laughed when you talked about how challenging this is–why? Because that is a lesson I have to learn repeatedly! (I often think because something looks simple that it is… so silly. I love your end results–they make sense and are definitely poetic. Another form of a “lifted” poem. Yea.
I did this in one of my classes for my masters. It was fun, but I agree that it takes time to gather the words. Great poems!