[Jim Moonan]

xOK, back to say that I'm wrong. Found poetry is, in a sense, cherry-picked from a larger body of text. Word collage. Yes? Now I know (should've known before posting).
x

[Martin Elster]

Jim,

If you got your words from other texts without adding anything of your own, then it’s a found poem. I listed three definitions of found poetry in Post #2. I suppose you read it. It’s from The Found Poetry Review.

I was obviously mistaken about saying your poem is not a found poem. (Incidentally, the link you supplied didn’t work. There was nothing there.) But you said you got all the words form Facebook, which tells me yours is a found poem. So, again, I apologize for assuming you wrote the poem yourself based on the Simon epigraph. I misunderstood your method. I suppose it was because you didn’t reference the original source.

[Michael F]

Just happened to poke my nose in here and I laughed hard at Rogerbob's poem (post #4).

Thanks for the laugh, Rogerbob -- it felt great!

[Jim Moonan]

Yes I did read your three definitions of found poetry from found poetry.org. That gave me pause, since what I had done to create mine did not neatly fit into any of the three, IMO.

Here is another link to the text I used for the found poem. Hope it opens up for you.

I said in my preface that, “I came across this on social media this morning. All I did was reformat it and add a bit to the end.” but didn’t provide a link to the source. Maybe that is where the confusion lay…

To be clear, the first stanza (italicized) is found poetry. The second stanza is what I added to it. The epigraph came only after, when I was reading it aloud and noticed the happy coincidence that it sounded like the refrain from Paul Simon’s The Boxer. When I took a look at the song lyrics I thought it was appropriate to include an excerpt as an epigraph.

Anyway, there are days when I feel I'm knee-deep in found poetry and so thought it would be interesting to hear quick bits of found poetry by others right on the spot. Just pick up a newspaper, magazine, website and there it is : )
x

PS: I take back my apology in post #11 : )
x

[Michael Cantor]

No, no, no! Most of you guys have it all wrong. Found poetry isn't about the poetry. It's about defining the precise definition of found poetry, with extra points for publishing an article about it, and extra-extra points for developing a doctoral program in found poetry and finding someone to fund it. You're not supposed to enjoy or admire the stuff - you just study it. People like Roger and Michael Ferris will be the death of found poetry.

[Julie Steiner]

Jim, I'm sure you didn't find "lier" [sic].

[Jim Moonan]

Julie,

I intentionally nested the word "lier" in the 2nd stanza (2x), which is the stanza that I wrote -- it's not part of the "found" text I used in the first stanza.

It is, of course, a found poem about Trump. Hence, the word "lier".

But I'm still unsure if it is indeed a found poem the way I composed it. Can someone confirm one way or another?
x

[Martin Elster]

I think what Julie was referring to, Jim, was that “lier” is supposed to be “liar.”

In regards to whether or not your poem is a “found poem,” well, the first stanza is, but, since you invented the second stanza, that part is not "found" (as far as I know). So it’s a combination of found and composed.

[Jim Moonan]

Omg!!!!!i missed that! I’ve edited it out of the poem. The correct spelling doesn’t jive with the look of the repeated “lie”.

[Ann Drysdale]

An American friend was throwing out a lot of stuff and gave me a memorial edition of a glossy magazine. It commemorated the disaster and heroism of "nine-eleven". All the editorial content was created accordingly but the advertisements, placed and paid-for, remained exactly where they were. I tried to make a poem from what I found but thought it more to the sick and sorry point that they should all stay as I found them. Is this a Found Poem?

Facing Pages.

September 24th 2001

Commemorative Editorial. The Day that Shook America.
Advertising copy, bought, placed and paid-for.

Front cover. Yellow, black, Flight 175. South Tower. Smoke.
Inside front cover, the more you know about your health, the healthier you’ll be.
Page one. Silver, blue. Twin towers. Liberty.
One-through-twenty. Faces weeping, blood, fear. Sheer human effort.
26. Collapse of South Tower...
27. Bra. Playtex. 18-hour sensation. Supports your sides like never before.
30. Sobbing survivors...
31. He knows just how to give me goose bumps. Diet Coke.
32. Named man kneeling, aghast...
33. We were there when you were a child of the 60’s. State Farm. There for life.
36. Firefighters, heroes, grief...
37. Wherehouse DVD. Schwarzenegger. Last Action Hero.
42. Women covered in dust, running, each holding a terrified child...
43. Why just wash away the day when you can wash away the years? Olay.
45. “Welcome to Manhattan”, running, running, running over Brooklyn Bridge...
46. Lipstick. Lipgloss. Twin products standing tall. Side by side. Cover Girl. Wow!
56. Pentagon employees carry the injured across the street...
57. I didn’t know acid reflux could wear away the lining of my esophagus. Nexium.
64. Bush returns to the capital. “Terrorism against our nation will not stand”...
65. It’s a day to giggle. And a day for Hormel Pepperoni.

Last page. A Banner Yet Waves. Rescue workers hoist the stars and stripes “In an echo of Iwo Jima".
Inside back over. More powerful than ever. Toyota Camry. Get the Feeling.

.