Unmuzzled, Unfettered

My collection of found poems includes ekphrasic collages inspired by works of art from Shakespeare to Charlie Mingus, centos of famous poets from Maxine Kumin to Dylan Thomas, and erasure poems from biographies, novels, and sources as unexpected as an astronomy text and online dictionary.

Here's a sample, an ekphrasic poem written while listening to the Charles Mingus Quintet playing "Alice's Wonderland," published first in Slow Trains Literary Journal, Fall 2005:

alice’s wonderland 

mingus
jarring jazz
magic tunnel
chute

o my desire is spreading 
sweet notes
raucous
jiving down
ears tuning to the treat

if i could eat this sound
i would be drugged
into the fancyland
of new tunes

never tasted fruit
tender meat
purple peals
all-night dreams

if i were feathered
charlie
i would sing
of you in birdland

The Eye Perceives

We shape our dreams
already half asleep
this play of colors
fabrication, whirlwind
of vertiginous
rising, descending
a black background
changing form and color
different lights, visual dust.

Wonder at this gray
here and there
phantasmagoria
brilliant reality
slow and gradual, deep
ceaselessly in so little space
sometimes on fire
emanating from the heart
awakening.
 
How does this happen?
Our dream spreads its waves
and moving forms with
sensation of different levels
flying or floating in space
wind playing its chromatic scale
against the tongs in the ears
sensations of buzzing, floating
feet not touching the luminous.
 
Notice this also
when we free ourselves
we are astonished.

Found poem from Dreams, by Henri Bergson.

installation

Zenith Telescope
mounted with unlikely
play of light

changes the form
of morning itself

In response to the challenge to compose a poem on the theme of Art metalwork using fifteen words from pages 18-19 in Publications of the University of Pennsylvania. Astronomical series, by University of Pennsylvania, 1963.  (I used one of the fifteen words as the title.)

PoMoSco (Poetry Month Scouts)

During National Poetry Month, April 2015, I was among 213 poets representing 43 states and 12 countries in The Found Poetry Review's project PoMoSco (Poetry Month Scouts), working toward 30 found poetry merit badges. "These aren't your childhood merit badges! PoMoSco participants had the chance to earn up to 30 badges in April by completing poetry challenges in five categories: remixing, erasure, out and about, conceptual and chance operations." 

Click on these posts to see my poem for each badge:

Remixing
Pick & Mix: "the world's continuous coming-into-being" 
Interrogator: "Did You Understand a Word?"
Haiku Anew: "Haiku Roku"
Pinch An Inch: "the instinct of mountains"
Blender: "The Eye Perceives"
First in Line: "The Days Have Done With You" 

Erasure
Open Book: "A Handmade Card"
White Out: "powerful visions" 
Redacted: "frustration" 
Click Trick: "A Good First Line"
Picture It: "How to Abide"
Cut It Out: "So Ordinary"

Out and About
All Ears: "I've Learned Enough For This Lifetime"
Order's Up: "Fundido"
Interloper:  "Is Paris Wise?" 
Off the Shelf: "Beneath Their Canopies"
Crowdsource: "How Yin and Yang"
As Advertised: "Extravaganza"

Conceptual
On Demand: "new route to old roots"
Substitute Texter: "Smoking the Modern Coyote" 
Survey Says: "Something Else is Here"
X:Y: "torn by terrible conflict"
Quiet on Set: "Do We Understand Each Other?" 
Best Laid Plan: "Anti-Marriage Rally"

Chance Operation
Shake It Up: "the glare of the serpent-haired sun"
Roll the Dice: "An Armadillo-Leprosy Link Had Long Been Suspected" 
Chance Walk: "Center for Sports Jones"
Spaced Out: "the films of Woo"
Spelling B: "The Martian Mauna" 
Dialed In: "Undercover"

Bast Revision of Waldrop Revision of Declaration of Independence

Below I have substituted synonyms of Rosmarie Waldrop's substituted words in "Shorter American Memory of the Declaration of Independence," where she replaced key words in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence with the seventh next word in a dictionary.

We wail these engagements to be outlawed, that all Endangered Species are acclaimed central, that they are suffered by their Grantee with naped irrefrangible perimeters, that among these are Electrical Discharges, Scoundrels, and the Curricle of Disembowelment. — That to inveigle these perimeters, Decorums are cocooned among Endangered Species, discussing their budding fitness from the plasticity of the disemboweled. — That whenever any Credo of Decorum becomes apprehended of these bitter leaves, it is the Perimeter of the Piquant to coat with atomic number 13 or to abhor it, and to shield theoretical Decorums, straining its stylograph on such literature and determining its utility in such credo, as to them shall seize most violaceousness to emit their Cunning and Disembowelment.

I've Learned Enough for This Lifetime

My whole life has felt like being on stage
without a script; I thought she was
going to take over. It’s more fun
when someone else is watching.
He drinks to come out of his shell;
I’ve been getting this big
message from the universe –
migraine and cluster headaches.
I try to avoid boredom.
He hung you out to dry.
I love him — I just don’t want
to be bounced around;
I’m desperate to find
the light, but when I move
out of my comfort zone
the fear is unbelievable;
letting go is like a black vortex.
I want to let things settle for a while.



To earn the ALL EARS badge, I was to take a public journey, keep an open ear to conversations around me, jot down overheard phrases and words, then craft a poem composed of those fragments. These are from conversations overheard in the reception area at a therapist's office.

Extravaganza

Hilarity, Romance, Musical Comedy: 

The friendly, festive, Wallenda circus family
give a bouquet of lush jasmine patchouli
on Mother's Day, dance universal peace
to the famous 1812 Sabre Dance Waltz
on a musical carousel with acrobats
and two frozen musketeers, warning
about the sword fighting concert.

The Flying Addams Family,
fun, magical, and macabre kids,
do something amazing --
give blood while juggling balloons
on a community tightrope between
The Thomas Center Galleries
and Disney's Cultural Affairs.


To earn the badge, AS ADVERTISED, I created a poem using only words found on the posters and fliers at Book Gallery West on 16th Blvd. in Gainesville:

A Good First Line

For PoMoSco's CLICK TRICK badge, I scanned a page as .jpg and created a computer-based erasure using the eyedropper tool for background colors, obscuring text until only the words of my erasure poem remained.  

Source text: “The Songwriters’ Songwriter,” by Robert Sullivan, The New Yorker, April 21, 2015

Anti-Marriage Rally

I don’t support marriage—
we all know that. But I would
happily attend a christening,
although I am Christian. 

I’d go to the wedding of someone close,
also to the wedding of someone not close.
I would be handing out anti-marriage
pamphlets at the reception.

I would not attend the wedding
of my worst enemy, but I’d definitely
be surprised to be invited. I might go,
because I would like a friend.

In a hypothetical universe in which I am straight,
I suppose I would go to my own wedding.
In this scenario, I’d want marriage to be legal.
Wait, can I just go with my initial statement?


To earn the BEST LAID PLAN badge, we were to plan to remove something from a source, keeping as much as possible of the remaining text intact. 

I deleted the words gay and lesbian and text not referring to marriage/ weddings from “Gay Events That I, Marco Rubio, Would Go To,” by Colin Stokes, The New Yorker, April 17, 2015.

Beneath Their Canopies

Mill Creek Preserve, oil painting by Mary Bast

Earth’s endless effort to speak to heaven,
unique in the smallest play of leaves,
complex curvings of branches,
nuances of green, foliage nodding
in instants of breeze or dappling sun,
blossoms too beautiful for words.
 
The tree seems still, a spot of shade,
birds’ home, nectar guide for pollinators,
warming love’s seeds beneath boughs.
Rain falls, wind sways, soil sustains,
nature subtly changing life’s essence.
 
Making no sound or sign
a forest can give the sky feeling.

 
OFF THE SHELF PoMoSco badge:  "Head to your local library or bookstore, making a mental note of things you see on your journey. Choose one of those for research and find five books related to that topic. Compose a poem using only the words and phrases found on the first five pages of each text, excluding introductory matter."

On my way to the library to prepare for this badge, I rejoiced in the abundant greenery of Gainesville Florida's urban forest. In addition to naturally growing laurel and water oaks, many thousands of trees have been planted along our streets, including magnolias, winged elms, bluff oaks, live oaks, and Florida maples.

Sources:  
The Power of Trees, Gretchen C. Daily & Charles J. Katz Jr,  San Antonio, TX: Trinity UP, 2012. 
Between Earth and Sky, Nalini M. Nadkarni, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.
The Glory of the Tree, Noel Kingsbury, Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books, 2014.  
The Secret Life of Trees, Hiara Chevallier, New York: DK Publishing, 1999.
Florida’s Fabulous Trees, Singapore: World Publications, 2000.

The Martian Mauna

Toward PoMoSco's SPELLING B badge, I entered a "seed" phrase in the Diastic Poem Generator (it searches for words that start with the first letter in the seed phrase, then the second, third, etc.). From that word bank I kept the words in order but removed some text to create "The Martian Mauna," which kind of makes sense...

Pulverized progress
clearly stopped Mauna cinder
gigantic mountain mimicking the lock
would lava interact ruefully,
keep research direction.
Nineteen preparing –
the Martian says three.
American psychological tubs
have Rovers tested months.

Mauna have personalities:
winnowing winnowing,
sometimes makes
dome seven like wary War.
President help companies
commercial mission,
forgave never Mars mission.
Around operator exploration,
communication adviser
once told go prepare
clenching mode contrast.

Mars Mars Mars


Seed phrase: preparing to move to mars

Source text: The New Yorker, April 20, 2015, “Moving to Mars: Preparing for the longest, loneliest voyage ever,” by Tom Kizzia.

Undercover

I am me, an unfinished beast
All I had to do was stitch her
dumbfounded, thrashing, shaking,
it becoming apparent my Papa
had only one ambition, to punch.

An iron-grey morning with a low sky,
his hot face flashed at me, grunting,
She’s going to spew it all. I’d kill her but
the cunt would take the stack, computer,
library microfilm, drawings, photographs.

It never happened, of course.
I pulled out a sweater, smiling,
quashed it, would have forgot
(the cleaver dipped its square tip
into the cutting block and stayed).

A bright, warm morning in Arkansas,
carnival in daylight spurred under-
standing — rain fell, a stream
of frosty nuggets washed around me
and made it right: Papa will pay for it.

There’s a lot of that undercover
if the outside world would say.


Following instructions for PoMoSco's DIALED IN badge, I used the digits in my complete phone number, including area code, and decided each in sequence would correspond to the number of pages between first lines, repeating the complete sequence three times to generate text for this found poem.

Source: Katherine Dunn, Geek Love: A Novel, New York: Random House, First Vintage Contemporaries Edition, 2002. Print.

Do We Understand Each Other?

Positive thoughts!
Positive thoughts!
We’re tighter than blood.
Sweetie pie, tootsie, call me.
We’ve said it all before.
I want to hear it again.
I love you.
I was out of line, I was bitching, I’m sorry.
That’ll be the day.
What did you say?
What did you say?
That I understand.
You appear to be looking for something.
I like women with fire.
Talk about déjà vu.
What are you doing?
Waiting.
Me, too.
You sound feminine.
I need a positive boy. I’m not implying you don’t care.
The way you’re acting, I don’t know.
I’m just tired.
Here are all my numbers and my cell.
It was good to meet you.
Now shake hands; now a little hug.
Now a deep tongue kiss, now I feel better.
Liaison, from the French word liaise meaning to bind.
Convince me.


To earn PoMoSco's QUIET ON SET badge, we were to choose a TV program, podcast, or movie of at least 30 minutes in length and transcribe what we heard — no pressing pause, turning on subtitles or referencing a script allowed! When creating a poem we could delete — but not reorder — the transcribed text. Mine is from NCIS, Season 3, “Hiatus – Part I”  

 

How Yin and Yang

How the word winds between my lips,
narrow body of water flowing down
a bed, journey of space and time,
willows, cattails, rushes mapping
holy sites along banks and bluffs,
travels living ground through landscapes
as circulatory systems move nutrients,
in the water, of the water, connecting
aquifers, oceans, run-off, rainfall, moving
life around the body, the globe, part of
a giant purifying, recycling, irrigation system.

Vastly different, the Mississippi, St. Johns,
the Charles, and lesser-known Neponset
where Asi and Varânasi meet Ganges –
established waterways, splashing
the same, yet coursing across eddies
in deep holes and under throat of oar,
purifying, dividing, beyond arbitrary lines,
awakening myriad associations,
nostalgia, peace, harmony, calm,
other bits gushing with winter fury, wet, cold,
warm, still, not still, a dead and moving mystery
between two parallel banks, a border
we can never specify, recalling Zeno’s Paradox –
the closer, the blurrier the boundaries,
we humans and bodies of water,
reflective, transparent, turning
the wheel of law, tearing away
from bemoaning rageful nights.


The task for PoMoSco's CROWDSOURCE badge was to invite people in a public place to define a word I chose or describe what that word brought to mind and use their words to create a found poem. Most interesting about this badge was the admonition, Do not include the chosen noun anywhere in the poem's body or title.  

My sources were writers who meet at Books-a-Million; hence the beautiful language about my secret noun, river.

Fundido

Two beans shot from a Tex-Mex Cadillac –
a Matador, stuffed from Sunday’s famous fiesta. 

Celeste, chicken, tossed sour fish on the rocks
and served free cocktails all day Wednesday.

Gonzales sat at the bar Friday from 11:00 – 3:00.
Every hour Margarita served an order of scrambled
black parrot spread on crispy taco: “Eat, loco.”

On the Mexican border a kid dipped imported speed
cooked with poblano pepper, Saturday’s hot speciality.

A marinated alcoholic chunked bottled ceviche
on the top shelf with bloody Jose Cuervo and Don Julio.

Andrea and Mary stripped with seasoned passion, rolled on
a mudslide, 10-inch breasts topped with chocolate cream.


This found poem for PoMoSco ORDER'S UP badge was great fun, using only words and phrases found on the menu of a a local restaurant, bar, or coffee shop. The Blue Agave Mexican Restaurant in Gainesville has three different menus (traditional, specials, drinks), so lots of possibilities for "fun" (yes, I know fundido actually translates as liquid, melting, or fluid -- which was fun for me):

A Handmade Card

I began to weep.
The syntax, the clarity
the right words
but sentimental
the good and bad of it
to pretend
old feelings are new
desire emotion without
paying for it.
I want the luxury of thrift
shopping for words
to give feelings shape
get easily at what’s wrong
to elaborate, enchanted
and perplexed
with style of articulation
digital surround sound
a fetish of detail
wary of metaphor
and something evasive.
 

From “Notes in a Sentimental Mood” by Terrance Hayes, pages 16 – 17 in American Poet, Volume 38, Spring, 2010

To earn PoMoSco's OPEN BOOK badge I selected a two-page spread from the source text, wrote down interesting words and phrases in the order encountered, then created a poem using only those without changing order or adding words.

How to Abide

Source text: page 9 of A Pema Chödrön Primer, Shambhala Sun Magazine & Shambhala Publications, Halifax, NS, B3J 1B7, Canada, 2015.

To earn PoMoSco's PICTURE IT badge, we were to take inspiration from Tom Phillips' A Humument and create a poem that's part erasure, part art. Instead of simply marking out text, we could use markers, crayons, paint or other materials to turn it into a picture. 

Center for Sports Jones

Education

“Raw Dog Investments renew federal bucks.”
“Student driver nails pizza.”
“Kids for Rent move Sweetest Donut installation.”
“Light Housekeeping Union chomps Linens Laundry Lobby.”
“Edward credits pediatric medicine plus The Force.”

Space Available

Stop Companionship Pressure
Oven-Baked Vinyl Training Institute
Hardwood Carpet and Herbal Hair Tires
Center for Flooring Rips Sales & Installation
Barbershop Spa – Dominos and Pit BBQ
Saint Leo University Closed

Stay and Renew

Center for Sports Jones
Sleep Disorders Catering
Love Touching Chiropractic
Tai Chi Sandwiches & Acupuncture Café
Express Family Night Drop
Magnolia Queen Star Charisma
Oil or Thyme Rehab Preparation
Coffee Council for Shopping Health

Therapy

Go Primal: Walk in Bike Lane
Painless Fitness: Stop Cleaning Things for Hours
Heart’s Genesis: Do Art at My Home
Walk Up Respite Care: Appointments
Come Get Me: Chinese Stress Connection

 

PoMoSco instructions: "Go for a walk, copying down text from all signage you pass. At each intersection, flip a coin to determine your new direction and continue copying text. Use this word bank for a poem." 

The above are re-ordered words from signage noted as I walked south from my apartment complex on NW 51st St. in Gainesville, Florida, to Timber Village, then east on 39th Ave.to Magnolia Parke, both with restaurants, banks, and other small businesses.

the world's continuous coming-into-being

seems like hallucination
this correspondence between
inner and outer landscapes 
an unmapped theatre
of attachment and belonging 

committed to a quest whose
necessity I could not refute
I lay in the darkness, felt a sense
of wildness at work in the world
memories a narrow, nameless fragment 

longing for isolated islands
and a few happy moments
fading back into darkness
like an irregular drumbeat
or simply two rough circles of light

how exposed I felt, an in-
between creature with rough, 
natural shape half-human, half-
marine, I creaked and groaned
like a whale on the move

yet fearless, an exile beached
out of sight of the sea, charmed
by the moon’s ability to silver the world
by wind’s voice, a braid of notes
to think in ways possible nowhere else

submarine twisting of currents
swarmed up a hundred-foot windstorm
territorial conflicts with biological 
revelation, rooks haggled in the air
as though I were not there at all



Found poem, from Robert Macfarlane's The Wild Places. New York: The Penguin Group, 2007. Print.

Did You Understand a Word?

Would he have been entirely wrong?
Was he an animal if music could captivate him so?
Is the playing perhaps unpleasant? Less sensitive?
How was he, then, to grasp the key?
Should he really call for help?
What’s happened? Why did his sister not join the others?
And why was she crying? Was it because he had not got up?
Yes?  Mother? Was that really his father?
The whole family? What now?

 
From The Project Gutenberg EBook of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Translated by David Wyllie. 

For the INTERROGATOR badge, we were to copy all questions in a source text and create a poem of questions from that list. My text was Kafka's Metamorphosis, so I had to scramble to find questions that take readers away from the original.