Don’t forget to visit this week’s round up. I really hope I can read and respond to more participants this week. Here’s hoping.
As part of Christie Wyman‘s “Playing with Poetry” workshop, we explored “Text-based poetry.” Forms that I’ve admired but honestly did not think were all that difficult. I was in for a surprise as I struggled with doing a found poem/blackout poem. I reflected on the activity and thought of ways to introduce it in the classroom and help students make their own poems. I wanted to use an entire page from Ocean Vuong’s novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, a gorgeous book. But I decided to leave it at a paragraph. Will definitely revisit and try again.
Thunder on the Green Horizon
Thunder
on the green horizon,
unmoored common sense
behind me
the current of language
unfurled rolled words
to feed yourself on the cusp of
danger.
I like reading the original passage with these type of poems, so just in case, enjoy.
Mar de Meditaciones 
I like that so much, Jonathan. Thunder Cake was a favorite of my son’s when he was little, and your poem, via Ocean Vuong’s longer paragraph, captures Patricia Polacco’s gift for providing kids with a “current of language” (and images in her books!) that will sustain them in challenging times. Nicely done. (Isn’t Ocean Vuong crazy talented?)
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“the current of language/ unfurled rolled words” is a wonderful image to center your found (erasure) poem on. I love the exercise of finding poems. It feels like a puzzle challenge to me.
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I like the puzzle analogy I can totally work with that1 Thanks for sharing!
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Lovely flow to your poem. It’s also fun to read poems others have written from the same text – to see how different our words are, from the same start point.
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Cool poem, and I do indeed enjoy seeing the original text — thanks!
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Thanks for including the original text! You chose a great starting point and wound up with a rich poem.
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Jonathan, I did enjoy reading the piece of writing that you started with. It is beautiful writing as well, and gave you a treasury of words to choose from. Your poem is lovely. I really enjoyed the ending lines and that image of unfurled words. Beautiful!
“unfurled rolled words
to feed yourself on the cusp of
danger”
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Jonathan, it has been a long time since I read Polacco’s book so I appreciate the prose selection. I see that you captured the essence of the scene in a your poem. I do love your great use of language in the ending lines.
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I love seeing the contrast between the original text and what you found. My favorite found poem I’ve ever done is called How to Talk to a Girl, and I extracted it from a long online piece: “How to Build Your First Robot” I especially love your last four lines…
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Wonderful movement in the poem you pulled out, and thrashing back and forth between the thoughts, thanks Jonathan!
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