My experience with found poetry, as well as working in a group, has been very positive. My past experiences with poetry were not as positive, I felt as if I couldn’t comprehend the words and the hidden meanings within them, so I thought I didn’t really like poetry that much. It honestly had me feeling a bit reluctant to jump into the found poetry. As I began to find sources for my found poetry, I began to feel as if I had tons and tons of ideas and possibilities for an outcome of a found poem. I realized my negative past experiences with poetry was just because I had yet to find a type of poetry that I truly enjoy, like found poetry. Each time when I began a poem, I looked through my sources, underlining and cutting out words and phrases that jumped out at me and inspired me. Then took the pieces, and with a final idea in mind, began piecing them together. I saw it almost like a puzzle. I thought “This is what I want to say, what words can get me there?” And the flow of creating seemed almost seamless with this end goal in mind. It was actually quite fun for me.
As a group, Tori and I kept this same form for creating the poems, and I believe it made the process of creating very effective and collaborative. We sat together, cutting out pieces of our articles, and keeping the six prompts in mind. We laid out all of the words and phrases we found, and one by one we pieced the poems together. We would lay one word or set of words down, and the other would pick out another option, seeing which would seem to fit better. The collaborative process seemed to come easy to the both of us, as we worked together in a judgement free zone, both trying to reach the goal of six poems made to the best of our ability. I also really enjoyed this aspect of creating because we both just wanted what was best for the poems. She was great to work alongside and helped make the process even more enjoyable.
Overall, my outlook on poetry as a form of writing has shifted with this lesson. I found that I really enjoy creating found poems, and the element of piecing them together from smaller fragments of work. I also really enjoyed working in a group with Tori, and we had a really great sense of team work, and keeping the same goals in mind.
