Finding Treasure in Found Poems

The New York Times is currently publishing the winners of their second annual Found Poem Challenge, held during April in honor of National Poetry Month. The Times is featuring one of the ten winners each day until June 13, giving students ages 13-25 a chance to dive into found poetry.  

Found poetry is created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes even whole passages from other sources and putting them together. For the Found Poem Challenge, contestants were allowed to use any story in the NYTimes.com archives as fodder; for example, this winning poem was constructed with two archived articles about WWII. 

A similar activity that will introduce your students to found poetry is found in The Power of Poems by Margriet Ruurs. The following excerpt is from "Found Poems," one of the thirty-seven poetry activities included in the book: 

Just as you can find things that become treasures, you can find words that, put together, make a poem. I’ll show you, and you can share this activity in the same way with your students. I am going to pick words from this piece of writing and put them into a poem. I will underline the words I choose: 

When I was little, Grandma’s button box was my favorite toy. I would sit on the floor by Grandma’s chair and she would bring me the button box. Gently, she’d bend down and put it by my feet on the carpet. Slowly, I’d lift the lid and stare at the treasure. Glittering, shimmering jewels were: shiny black eyes, golden coins, and sparkling diamonds off princesses’ dresses. Then I’d tilt the box, slowly, with both hands until the buttons poured out onto the carpet. I’d shift them with my hands, let them run through my fingers in a cascade of colors. I’d make piles and bulldoze them around the carpet. I felt the buttons. They felt good. 

Now I put these underlined words into a poem. Look: I found a poem!

Grandma

I was little

Gently

her eyes sparkled

Both hands

in my hands

Grandma felt good

The Power of Poems: Writing Activities that Teach and Inspire includes dozens of activities for integrating poetry across the curriculum in grades 3-8. Click here to download free sample activities.