As anyone who has taken the Modernism module whilst studying English Literature at Queen Mary will know, a Found Poem is created by taking words, phrases and passages from other sources and rearranging them into a somewhat coherent poem, unless, of course, you are a Dadaist – that poetry can be pretty much nonsensical. For one of my portfolio assessments, I was tasked with setting an alarm every hour on the hour, from 9am until 9pm and, once it went off, recording the immediate thing that came into my mind. I would then have to analyse that poem and this method, but, as that is boring, I will only give you the objects, songs, phrases, titles and lyrics that sprung up during what was a pretty chaotic day in London and the final poem which is hopefully somewhat coherent, somewhat thought provoking and somewhat acceptable.
My found phrases:
- 9am: Cavalry Twill, Hair and Body Wash.
- 10am: Arms and the Boy
- 11am: Huge Black Friday Sale! Buy 3, Get 3 Free!
- 12pm: “The coats and jackets with red labels.”
- 1pm: Cured Meat from Carnivore Club.
- 2pm: The Attica Uprising.
- 3pm: “25 to Oxford Circus.”
- 4pm: Goodbye Blue Sky.
- 5pm: The Family Vault of a Mr William Bury.
- 6pm: High Spirits, Low Prices.
- 7pm: Double time swing.
- 8pm: DNA of Mathematics.
- 9pm: The Boatman’s Call.
Final Stroke
Boy, 25,
Twill hair.
The body of the cavalry from
The Carnivore Club.
Cured, huge arms and
Low prices.
A vault of uprising red spirits.
DoubletimeDoubletime,
The circus of the blue sky,
A free DNA swing!
AtticaAtticaAttica!
*
A Friday
Black,
The Boatman’s low call –
*
Mr William Bury, family,
3 coats 3 jackets,
From Oxford mathematics
To high price labels.
Wash the meat
And buy the goodbye.