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Poetry Writing Exercise
2, Collage
By Sebastien
Cole
This exercise
is helpful in several ways. It helps you to understand the connections
between lines of poetry and how poetry is composed. It also helps
you to become more closely involved in reading, and to become
more attuned to the rhythm of words. To begin this exercise you
should look at the work of some other poets. Take a line from
anywhere in a poem, and write it down. For example;
The
wind blew and the street was dark
Then find a line
from another poem to put beneath it, making a 'collage' of other people's phrases. In this way,
you can use other people's phrases to make your own poem. For
example;
The
wind blew and the street was dark I made my way along the quay
I ate a peach; it tasted sweet I knew my way was long
Practice
this for a while, then try and make a collage out of prose. As
an example, I made this collage poem from Leonard Cohen's novel,
Beautiful Losers;
Zombies
in my memory Escaped balloons and kites I am sick I'm freezing
to death
I thought
nature would be better I thought the noise of bird would be more
sweet I have forgotten My head like
the generals of a junta
Cartwheels
Friendship fingers I pour miracle drugs I hang suicide nets
Technicolour
acrobatics Inflammatory arcs A million seedy secrets Gleaming
through the cheers
A novel is a
relatively easy source of collage, so once you've tried this,
you should move onto something more difficult. For example, here
is one I made from 'Acoustic Guitar World'magazine;
Nearly impossible
To play the last half
A composite arrangement
A unique resonance and complexity
These songs The
pianistic cluster Each measure, And
the higher strings in between
Easy to finger
Two beats each
You will find
that your creations are beginning to look and sound like poetry.
Maybe you are even beginning to express your own ideas in the
collages. This is also a good exercise to continue even as you
write your own poetry.
http://www.poetrymasterclass.com
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