Rules for Found Poetry
1. Keep track of where you get your words so you can give source credit.
2. Forbidden sources: poetry, song lyrics, commercial advertising, and anything that
is already “artistically arranged.” Otherwise, anything goes: magazines, books,
assignments, textbooks, menus, notes, newspapers, historical plaques, obituaries,
road signs, latrinalia, etc.
3. Copy the language in the sequence that you found it. Double space between lines
so it’s easy to work with.
4. Study the words you found. Cut out everything that’s dull, unnecessary, sounds
bad, or is otherwise offensive.
5. Adding your own words to the found words is “illegal” in this form and generally
not tolerated in official Found Poem circles. A found poem is, after all, just
that—found. However, for the sake of this class, if you need to add up to two
words for the sake of clarity or meaning, you may add no more than two words.
You may also make minor little changes, such as in tenses, possessives, plurals,
punctuation, and capitalization.
Rules for Found Poetry
1. Keep track of where you get your words so you can give source credit.
2. Forbidden sources: poetry, song lyrics, commercial advertising, and anything that
is already “artistically arranged.” Otherwise, anything goes: magazines, books,
assignments, textbooks, menus, notes, newspapers, historical plaques, obituaries,
road signs, latrinalia, etc.
3. Copy the language in the sequence that you found it. Double space between lines
so it’s easy to work with.
4. Study the words you found. Cut out everything that’s dull, unnecessary, sounds
bad, or is otherwise offensive.
5. Adding your own words to the found words is “illegal” in this form and generally
not tolerated in official Found Poem circles. A found poem is, after all, just
that—found. However, for the sake of this class, if you need to add up to two
words for the sake of clarity or meaning, you may add no more than two words.
You may also make minor little changes, such as in tenses, possessives, plurals,
punctuation, and capitalization.