Friday, August 31, 2012

Facebook Found Poetry

Hey, look! I did something weird! This morning, as a "warm up" for writing, I decided to create a found poem using only little bits and pieces copied and pasted from Facebook status updates posted by my friends. I only used lines from statuses posted this morning. Each line is from a different friend's update. I added punctuation, and a "but" or "and" here and there to make it make sense, but otherwise left the status lines unchanged. The poem came out sounding sort of creepy and violent, although that wasn't my intention. (Don't judge!) This was a very quick, fun exercise and I highly recommend trying it!

Shipwrecked

Shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods,
Too early, still deranged,
I am going to have to add this to my collection,
section by section, on the bed.
The deceased had knowingly gotten herself into a dangerous situation.
A truly rare event.
I've made a list. A very detailed one!
But the magic is fumbled
Whomp whomp whomp!
An elbow to the nose.
(Let me know if I should be amused or horrified.)
If you were going to buy snake oil,
Show your support!
I know, you can all scream with me!
It's fun to reimagine an old story.

But today is the last day of winter.
Below that water are the streets I grew up on.
If you are the praying type, say a prayer.

2 comments:

  1. This is great, Laura! I love it! That last line makes me a little sad, just thinking that it's real and what it could be.

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  2. Thanks, Crystal! It was sort of addictive. Now I can't stop myself from looking at fb as source material... You should try it for fun!

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