I love the randomness of poetic sparks. I embrace them with enthusiasm. They are a vital life source for poets.  This idea burst upon the scene while scanning through my twitter (X) feed earlier this week.  Social media can be mirky water to navigate, but if we move quickly past the toxic waste, there is treasure to be found.  I came across an extensive rolling conversation where contributors were suggesting possible scenarios for a funeral. Humour and quirky darkness kept me engaged. The inventiveness of the contributions was most evident. Brainstorming at its best. Ideas dripping with potential. So what has emerged from my reading that day is partly found poetry further enhanced by improvisation on text and woven into a brand new poem. I could not have foretold what would spark my poetic juices that day, but that twitter feed has sparked a poem. I am most pleased to have composed this rather subversive ode to wicked intrigue. It reminds me that we must remain ope...

 In my most recent rummaging through family history documents I came across a collection of letters my mother  exchanged with family and friends in the 1960's and 70's.  Lifting them out and into the light of day, I found myself fascinated by the language of the letters. Snippets of detail and flourishing turns of phrase were lighting up my reading. I was intriguied by the content of these letters. I began jotting down lines I loved and began to weave them into an arrangement that sounded like it had some flow, some connection.  This is Cento poetry, a derivative of found poetry. These old hand written letters have alerted me to an even broader range of possibility when it comes to the search for inspiration...   Jottings -a clutch of old letters At last I am writing a few lines Having taken up the pen -I have done it mentally many times…   Just to let you know we now have a Chihuahua puppy We feed with an eye dropper She’s a real imp of mis...

This week I have been closely examining Cento poems. A Cento poem is composed of various lines lifted from different poems. They are sometimes referred to as Patchwork or Collage poems. They are yet another form of found poetry. The idea is to gather appealing lines from poems to create a pool of content from which to choose the most suitable lines for your new poem. You are aiming for lines that might lend themselves to meshing together to create a cohesive work. The poet becomes a weaver- a weaver of words. You begin by choosing one or two lines per poem. Once you have your pool of lines you may commence to reconstruct, reconfigure and remix the word order of your chosen lines. You may also make them rhyme if you so choose. It is important to be consistent with your use of tenses and voice.  As a poetry form, Cento poems are quite old. They stretch back to the ancient Greek poet, Homer and the Roman poet, Virgil. Many famous poets have written Cento poems. Two examples of conte...

It's Poetry Friday and this week I have been exploring Erasure Poetry. It is a poetry form similar to Black Out Poetry.  Erasure poetry is a form of found poetry created by erasing words from an existing text in prose or verse and framing the result on the page as a poem. The words can be arranged into lines and/or stanzas. Just like Black-out poetry, Erasure poetry require words to be removed, obscured or redacted. What is left becomes the basis of the poem. For me there exists a sense of joy in unearthing poetic words seemingly buried within a larger text. Some people see Erasure and Blackout poetry as the same thing. I am inclined to draw a distinction between them because in an Erasure poem the words are typically lifted out of situ and assembled on a different background. Erasure poems also allow some reorganization of the original line order.  So more writer's notebook experimentation... This time using the words of The Brother's Grimm to create Erasure Poetry.  My ...

It's World Poetry Day, on 21 March. This day recognises the unique ability of poetry to capture the very essence of humanity.  In every culture there are poets who feed the soul of their nation and present as advocates for the arts.  For those of you not yet completely comfortable teaching poetry, or for those looking to freshen up their current poetry resources, Here are some possibilities to explore.  Poetry Ideas Across the Curriculum • Invite students to organize a collection of poems relating to their own culture. You could organize them around such categories as celebrations, families, food, holidays. • Collect photo essays, newspaper and magazine articles, informational books, and historical fiction and invite students to use them as source material for poetry • Make weather poems using weather reports as the basis for ideas. • Encourage students to tell their own stories/experiences in poetic form • Use a science activity to launch a poetr...

The name, 'Golden shovel,' refers to a form of poetry created by Terrance Hayes around 2010.   The following rules apply to the Golden Shovel Poetry form: Take a line (or lines) from a favourite poem Use each word in the chosen line (or lines) as an end word  for each line in your poem. Keep the end words in order. Give credit to the poet who originally wrote the line (or lines). Your newly created poem does not have to be about the same subject as the poem that provides the selected end words. If you select a line with six words, your poem will be six lines long. The more words you select, the longer the poem will be. Each selected word represents a line. Hayes initially used a frequently published Gwendolyn Brooks poem,  'We Real Cool.' His poem is called 'The Golden Shovel.'  So that's where the name originates. This poetic form offers more freedom for creativity than other forms of found poetry. Keeping the end words in the order th...