Category: Found Poems

For my found poem, I chose to write about climate change. I found an article that was published in November of 2018. This article was written by David Malakoff, and it outlines the current state of the United States in terms of climate change. The original title of the article is “Climate Change Poses Major Threat to United Staes, New Government Report Concludes.” Climate change is present today, despite denial from the president, and any administration following the president. Climate change is a serious issue that will devastate the whole entire world, and human population, if action is not taken soon. This article outlines the negative aspects of climate change, and the lack of effort made in order to fix this issue.

I chose to write out the words that I had originally circled, and blacked out of my article. The article was two full pages long, therefore I chose to write out the found words, rather than black them out in the traditional style. I originally had written it out, and added color, however I felt it took away from the overall message. We need to take action in order to avoid the repercussions of climate change, and I hope that my found poem helps to spread this message. Climate change, and the fact that people aren’t worried about its impact is something that angers me, and the found poem was a nice medium to express my anger in regards to the topic. Each of these sentences are fragments from the article, coupled together in order to make sense.

I chose the song, “Sad Song” by We the Kings. I chose this song because when I listen to the words, I can connect to it. For my found poem, I first read through the song lyrics. After going through the lyrics, I circled the lyrics that stood out to me. The lyrics tend to be sad and a little down, but there is a story to goes along with what’s being said. When hearing Travis, the lead singer, singing you can hear the emotions of sadness and grief pouring out. The song is about a husband losing a loved one and I can relate to this because I have lost a loved one. I also relate this to losing someone in a relationship, where I can also relate to it as well. I did different colored lines and circles just to bring some fun colors, but I also tried to color cordnate certain types of words.

For my found poem, I chose to do it on the article of Laura Ingraham laughing at Nipsey Hussle and making rude comments in response to him and YG’s (another current rapper) song and video about Donald Trump. When I browsed through my Instagram this weekend looking for something to bring into Monday’s class, I came across the news coverage video of her and her partner laughing and making fun of the late rapper and his colleague. I was immediately outraged and disgusted by the laughing and comments that were presented in my found poem. Her lack of knowledge on the culture, her history of attacking people who oppose Donald Trump (also stated in the poem) or who are of color and lack of respect for the dead and people’s opinions, really caused me to wonder how she became a newscaster and how she continues to work for Fox News, despite her reputation.

It is understandable to have your own opinion, but I feel it should’ve been done in a way that was deferential, especially since she is talking about a man who was recently killed and who was loved and honored by family, friends, and fans due to how much he gave back to his community and made endless efforts to make the world a better place. I feel she was extremely condescending and it is disgusting. It is evident that she is very racist and a horrible image for Fox News. Like stated by all of the other rappers in the article, she needs to be fired.

For the found poem assignment I chose to use the lyric in the song, U.O.E.N.O. it by Rick Ross featuring Future. The two lines I scrambled in my found poem are, “Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it”, and ” I took her home and enjoyed, she ain’t even know it”. The reason I chose this lyric is not only due to the anger that develops when hearing the song but, presenting how the ideal of treating women is presented in our generation. People tend to think that women are being treated better than the past. In actuality a system has been created to manipulate and mistreat women of all races in this world. Whether it is the workplace, sports, or simply in relationships women are seen as the weaker link to men who lack respect and character. The reason I used orange and blue in the found poem is because of the meaning in which they hold. The meaning of the color orange according to the Bourn Creative, “is associated with balance, sexuality, and freedom “. The color orange I also associated with the female gender symbol, to express how a situation such as the rapper Rick Ross raps about drugging women and raping them, creates a sort of symbol of freedom in the sex. Blue according to Bourn Creative is associated with, “depth, trust, loyalty,and sincerity”. The reason I corresponded this color with the male gender symbol is because these are the characteristics in which all men need to develop in relationship with all women whether we know them or not.

For my found poem, I used the last few lines of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”. If you’ve never read the novel/ don’t remember it well, the last few paragraphs relate to a character named Boo Radley. Boo Radley was a recluse in the town of Maycomb, so much so that the children began imagining who he was, what he does in his house, and make assumptions about the type of person he is. Towards the end of the novel, Scout and Jem (two main characters, siblings), are attacked by a man named Bob Ewell, who, lost his job due to Atticus’ (their father) trial. Ewell had intended to kill the children as revenge towards Atticus, and Boo Radley is the person who saved them.

The novel itself is very shocking and sad, with themes such as racism and injustice being highly prevalent. In the last few pages of the novel, I was becoming angry with the way Boo Radley had been treated all along, despite being an unmasked hero. With the poem, I crossed out the parts where Scout described how Boo Radley was chased by the cops after saving the children. I kept parts where Scout herself recognizes Boo Radley as a person and good human being, and where Atticus finally agrees with her. I included parts like “He … Sat me down” and “His hands were … around me” to establish a sense of love prevailing against the hatred that was so grown into the town of Maycomb. I also included “He would be there all night / in the morning”, to bring about a sense of security within the readers; to feel as though there was some warmth in an atmosphere that was so bitterly cold. Additionally, I included “They chased him … ’cause they didn’t know what he looked like” because it epitomizes the fear that the majority of the town felt toward Boo Radley.

For my found poem, I wanted to do something that is aggravating and make it sort of funny in a way. This poem is made entirely out of words from Donald Trump’s tweets. His tweets to start are already outrageous. So this was a fun experiment to see if I could make the meaning of the poem against Trump. This is a large contrast from the original tweets that Trump talks so highly of himself. I wanted to show the other side and opinions that many people agree with. I wanted the layout to incorporate poetry and stay true to the twitter format. The spacing out of words and different sizes show that it is a found poem. I included Trump’s twitter handle and picture at the top to give the sense of it being another one of his tweets. But, the content is something opposite of what he would say about himself; but said in his own words.