Finding Your Voice In Found Poetry

Class Description

Join the North Country Writers of Riverworks for an afternoon of “Found Poetry,” in which we’ll sharpen our poetic perceptions, strengthen our receptivity to the mysterious, and boldly allow our inner literary intuitions to blossom. Found Poetry is a practice of writing that allows a “way in” to your voice by finding it through the voices of others. More specifically, it is a literary art in which we compose a poem from the words, phrases, fragments, and passages of an existing text—such as articles, essays, and books—by erasing, or blacking out, lines to create a wholly new work from what remains. In a sense, this form of writing is something of a silent and powerful collaboration that reveals the hidden energy in all language. Supplies needed: Please bring along photocopies of several pages of text—from books, articles, essays, etc.—about subject matter that you are drawn to. We will mark-up this material to compose your Found Poems. If you are comfortable working on the originals of your texts, those are fine to bring along, too. Riverworks Art Center's Literary Arts Program and the North Country Writers of Riverworks are generously supported by Sugar Pea Vintage. See Lisa Couturier's bio on our Teaching Artists page.