More Found Poems: Titanic Found Poetry

According to Poets.org Found Poems are defined as follows:

Found poems take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as poems. The literary equivalent of a collage, found poetry is often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems. 

A pure found poem consists exclusively of outside texts: the words of the poem remain as they were found, with few additions or omissions. Decisions of form, such as where to break a line, are left to the poet.

Titanic is our jumping off point for more than just research.  To that end, my students are also using Titanic as the subject for their poetry unit.  First, we are writing "Found Poems" using text from Titanic Book One * Unsinkable by Gordon Korman.  You'll be amazed at what you can do with found texts!  It's a really great nonthreatening way to start a poetry unit.  Here are a few more poems created from Titanic Book One * Unsinkable by Gordon Korman

Incognito

The Titanic (p. 70)
Not a wave exists large enough to toss a ship this size (p. 52)
No force of nature could destroy this floating wonderland (p. 52)
The sea (p.1)
The greatest of them all (p. 3)
She laughted mirthlessly (p. 103)
Endless waves (p. 1)
Frozen hearts (p. 1)
Many ships encountered ice (p. 3)
All but one survived (p. 3)

By C.F.

Credit:  Found Poem created with text from Titanic Book One * Unsinkable by Gordon Korman

The Unsinkable Titanic

The carpet-so plush, so thick (p. 42)
Plush velvet draperies (p. 42)
The framed pictures looked expensive (p. 42)
Vaulted ceiling, delicate furniture (p. 42)
Two cast-iron spiral stair cases (p. 41)
Polished hardwood (p. 41)
It was hard to believe (p. 42)
The greatest of them all (p. 3)
RMS Titanic lay at the bottom of the sea (p. 3)
The unsinkable Titanic (p. 3)

By C.B.

Credit:  Found Poem created with text from Titanic Book One * Unsinkable by Gordon Korman

The Criteria which students were to use:
Poem must have at least a minimum of eight lines 

Page numbers must be given at the end of each line
Poems title must come from the text

Poem must pertain to the Titanic
Poem must have also include an image
Poem must be created using Titanic Book One * Unsinkable by Gordon Korman

Resources:

Poets.org
New York Times Found Poetry
Creative Writing Now

What do you think of found poetry?  Have you used/written Found Poems?  Let us know!

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