by Nathan Moore
Is it just as fun taking words apart as it is putting them together? What happened when you let chance and randomness have their way with your words? Leave a link to your cut ups here — I can’t wait to see what you made!
Please read this page to find out how the Get Your Poem On and Read Write Prompt posts work.
Remember that work linked from this post is shared in precisely that spirit: sharing, as opposed to critiquing.
If you haven’t done so already, please read all the pages under About in the navigation bar.
If you participate in a Read Write Prompt, we ask that you link back here in your posts, either with a link to Read Write Poem or by using the Read Write Poem badge in your post. Sidebar links are great but it helps others find the site when you link in every post you contribute to the project. It’s not a lot to ask in acknowledgment of the work everyone is doing in providing prompts for members to use.
Nathan Moore is community director and a columnist for Read Write Poem. In his spare time, he plays with his children and with fire. Never at the same time. He blogs at Exhaust Fumes and French Fries.
My poem this week is titled:
“Tetragrammaton”
I struggled with the concept, with the process, and with ginormous a/an/the/in/to clusters, but in the end…
First? Here is my attempt…
The King’s Lament
It was an interesting exercise, don’t know that I’d repeat it often, but still…
New Scientist vs Vogue = a mess. Or, This…
Snipped, patched, for art’s sake.
the failed violinist
My piece is up. It’s not on my personal site, but instead over at Mutating the Signature:
http://mutatingthesignature.org/2009/10/21/telegram/
Here’s mine. I did a cut-up plus a mash-up, and even after all of the smoothing it’s still pretty abstract:
Distance
I massacred two great poems .I know I did a bad thing but it was Nathan’s idea!
http://rallentanda.blogspot.com
Donald Harbour replied:
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:11 am
Enow..to get your sonnet go here: “Thou Art a Strumpet Faire”
rallentanda replied:
October 23rd, 2009 at 5:23 pm
I prefer your other sonnet
‘Thou art a crude misogynist’
Donald Harbour replied:
October 24th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Nay, nay the playful banter of a grinning Puck.
rallentanda replied:
October 25th, 2009 at 5:23 am
In Elizabethan English
strumpet means a whore slut
Call me old fasioned Puck but I’m not grinning
rallentanda replied:
October 25th, 2009 at 5:45 am
oops typo- fashioned. If you want to rectify this Puck,try an acceptable public apology.If not, I will consider what further action I may choose to take.
That was fun!
Chance Language Encounters
“safer” comes from my husband’s essay
http://theresebroderick.wordpress.com/
This weeks was a little…interesting…They came riding yaks.
You’ll find mine here.
I simply re-wrote a terza rima. Not as easy as I had thought:
http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com/2009/10/terza-rima-psychedelic-pajamas.html
reflecting pool, illuminate
Cut and jumbled, a poem in two voices.
Now I have all these extra “a” “an” “of” sniplets lying around. What does that mean? I ended up somewhere near where I began. Wizard Wife
angie werren replied:
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:40 am
me, too. “sniplets lying around”
I was thinking about making soup…
mark Stratton replied:
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:38 pm
You could bake a snippet pie…
I used text about the Battle of Trafalgar (anniversary yesterday). It presents a rather different course of events!
http://melrosemusings.blogspot.com/2009/10/naval-report.html
this was fun — thumbs up for scissors-and-glue-sticks!
http://therer2doors.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/a-ramidus-and-the-descent-of-man/
Wwweeelllll, folks. I cut my finger, twice, with those damn scissors. So, I wrote about something ubiquitous in our lives that everyone takes for granted, except those that love to touch it. Ohh, I like to touch it. Can you guess what it is, not a clue, good. Then try this on:
There it is, everywhere
Its raining here in Arkansas, an ‘it’ likes the rain!
Not really a cut up. More like a flip through…
http://jerrydwhite.blogspot.com/2009/10/from-second-shelf.html
I was very surprised at how insightful this poem turned out. I didn’t expect it to turn out nearly so well.
Dear Poet, a poem composed of cut up rejection letters.
This one grew me…. in more ways than as a poet.
http://juliejordanscott.typepad.com/jjspoetry/2009/10/readwritepoem-prompt-97-coin-paradox.html
I was very surprised at how insightful this poem turned out. I didn’t expect it to turn out nearly so well.
Dear Poet, a poem composed of cut up rejection letters.
Here’s what happened. It’s part of the new venture Dana and I have started called Mutating the Signature: http://mutatingthesignature.org/2009/10/22/denouement-how-to-untie-a-knot/
Mine is titled “ReX”. http://zouxzoux.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/rwp-97-rex/
Off to work for me….will be reading all y’all tonight!
In my own somewhat dyslexic way, I twisted the idea of putting the words into a jar, which was only a part of what we were supposed to do, into ordering the words from heavy to light. The poem I wrote is environmentally based (Rallentanda =D) and sad. I enjoyed putting it together. It was based on ideas from a newspaper article. I got it partly right.
Living In The Eastern Woodlands. My poem is Coal Fire and Melted Ice
Zouxzoux replied:
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:40 pm
I think your technique with this poem is masterful. I am so impressed with the result!
I’m not sure what I enjoyed more–cutting up a memo from work or writing this poem! :0)
http://freckledwriter.blogspot.com/2009/10/poet-realizes-she-has-never-had.html
Here is my offering this week. I warn you it turned out a bit creepy….
http://cynthiashort.blogspot.com
http://radio-nowhere.org/nb/?p=273
I didn’t follow the prompt. I rewrote an older poem. Color me rebellious!
Strange poem from a cut-up of an unsuccessful short story I wrote years ago.
“Sea Sick”
http://djvorreyer.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/readwritepoem-97-cut-and-paste/
Back after slightly over a month of not posting here! Here’s my contribution for the week:
A Pace Beyond
http://thinkingcities.blogspot.com/2009/10/pace-beyond.html
Here’s my contribution: their journey withered, from a bag of Basho’s words.
After some wrestling with the assignment, I fished randomly from three groups of phrases about Andrew Wyeth and/or his painting of Christina Olson. The first was a set of disparaging remarks by critics, the second, a set of Wyeth’s own comments, and the third a free association scribble of my own impressions of the painting. Finding that I only got babble when I selected single words, I allowed myself chunks of a few words and then did a bit of pruning and organizing afterward, though leaving most of the structure intact.
Christina’s World
No Cut-Ups
There’s still a cup of words waiting by the keyboard. This was one I’d ‘cut up’ some time back – Thanks!
Read Write Poem #97
[...] http://readwritepoem.org/blog/2009/10/22/get-your-poem-on-97/?utm_source=microblog&utm_medium=s... a few seconds ago from web [...]
Pretty silly, but here it is: Submissions for The Gods
I wrote two sad excuses for poems.
http://paperdreams-jgc.blogspot.com/2009/10/cutting-up-rwp-prompt-97.html
[...] a Read Write Poem prompt, using the cut-up technique. I dug out a Copper Canyon Press catalog (Spring/Summer 2009) [...]
RWP#97 using cut-up technique. I cut up and old Ken Kesey book…Sailor Song…page 371…randomness..some words came out of my hat.
http://waynepitchko.blogspot.com
lizenslin replied:
October 24th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Hey Wayne-
(For some reason, my comment didnt’ work on blogspot, so I’m leaving it here):
I suspected this technique to be dangerous but never thought about cutting a finger. I like the flow and images in your poem. My favorite line: “publishing dirt on green stuff.”
[...] distillation and clarification of last night’s response to the RWP prompt. Now I think I’m getting [...]
I had so much fun doing this – I am still working on it unfortunately – hence the delay.
I had a poem from HW Longfellow which I cut up (I felt like a little kid) and drew one word after another (didnt even change the order for the final product) have taken a pic of the created poem… will have to post it!
But, just wanted to let you know it was such an awesome exercise! Thank you….
I note you have chosen to remove the publication of my email address(which is supposed to be private) and the sonnet dedication to the nagging English teacher from Sydney in your post and replaced it with something more acceptable.
However this does not constitute the public apology that I requested. The slander was read
by those who visited the site including those
who commented.
rallentanda replied:
October 25th, 2009 at 10:18 am
The above is addressed to Donald Harbour
Read Write Poem replied:
October 25th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Donald and Rallentanda, a reminder that Read Write Poem maintains a respectful environment between its members and has established a code of conduct to this effect. If you want to have this discussion publicly on Read Write Poem, please follow the code. If you have any questions, feel free to email the directors.
This is my maiden voyage on Prompt 97. Here’s a link to my poem: “Staying.” http://TwitPWR.com/vKO/
Therese L. Broderick replied:
October 28th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Allan, I left an appreciation of your poem on your Facebook page because I couldn’t access your blog comments (I have a WordPress account, but not a Google account.)