Friday, August 17, 2012

A found poem

A friend recently posted a found poem on one of my Facebook poetry sites. We both agreed writing a found poem is great way to get over a bit of writer's block. 

According to the American Academy of Poets:


Found poems take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as poems. The literary equivalent of a collage, found poetry is often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems.

A pure found poem consists exclusively of outside texts: the words of the poem remain as they were found, with few additions or omissions. Decisions of form, such as where to break a line, are left to the poet.

I've written, or rather, refashioned several. Here's one taken from a restaurant menu. I loved all the exotic words.



Recipe for Fulfillment

Pile chicken satays, sesame-crusted Char Siu buns, Manhattan summer rolls, Indian samosas and crab rangoons into a Dim Sum Tasting Tower.
 
Stir fry tempeh with galangal, chilies, kaffir-lime and Javanese brown sugar.
 
Mix Tom Kha Gai soup with Thai coconut chicken, lemon grass and galangal and ladle into fresh young coconut shells garnished with paper umbrellas.
 
Prepare Komodo Dragoon salad with grilled beef, fresh greens tossed in lime and lemon grass dressing.
 
Wok fire flat rice noodles with thin sliced beef, Chinese sausage, eggs sprouts and vegetables and one beef satay to create Malaysian Char Kway Teow.
 
Make Chiang Mai by sautéing sliced chicken breasts with garlic, chili, onions, peppers, fresh basil and pesto. Pour around Jasmine rice on a square tea-green charger.
 
Drizzle liquid sugar and sesame oil over composed Oriental sticky rice and fresh thinly-sliced mangos and strawberries for a cool and delicate dessert.
 
Serve to the couple reclining on the huge red satin pillows in the candle-lit corner booth by the window.

No comments: