Found Poem Maddie Tichy

Sexual harassment           a formal complaint

       Not              worth it  

          no          back up.

Students take the hit           victims

 Victim             Least powerful        

                      having to adjust

     future      

“Trouble maker”          in a small office

When speak up              victims. 

Against powerful-           banded together

New process        “handling”

slow moving.            Unconvincing

    women         bullied out

Of careers   women

       victims.

For my found poem I aimed to create a hallowed outlined of work, where many of the details are left out. For my poem I tried to write in this style to make one specific situation fit the issues that many who undergo similar situations face. Sexual harassment is a widespread issue that women are affected by in all different ways. Although each individual woman has their own story, many of the basics are the same. That is what I was aiming to depict in this poem, the basic structure of these situations. Situation sot sexual harassment begin with the incident as well as the decision as to whether or not to report it or file a complaint. Women are forced to decide with the possibility that they will not receive backup and support. Without the support they become the victims, with reputations that bar them from future jobs and ruin their image at current jobs. These are common issues that are often found to be the base of many sexual harassment incidents.  In my poem, I eliminated the specific details of the one woman’s story in the article I read. Her specific issue sparked my anger towards the topic as a whole, inspiring me to write my poem as a more general outline of the issue of sexual harassment.

 

 

Found Poem Brian Poerio

The poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “I Will Put Chaos into Fourteen Lines” inspired my found poem. The original work by Millay  shows several ideas, the most being a religious one. Without going too far in-depth, the poem shows a struggle with human curiousity and the power evil has on it. This poem I found upsetting because the speaker of the poem allows him/herself to feel safe around Chaos and then wanted to learn from it. This idea however allows for Chaos to continue.

I chose to modify the poem by Millay however into something different. I was inspired by both our class, as well as my American Literature class where we discussed slavery and oppression. My modifications however were not inspired by African Slavery, but Native American Slavery. Europeans originally claimed they wished to teach them Christianity. However, they did not submit freely and were brutally attacked and enslaved and used against there will in the hopes that they might convert or die. Even converting however did not end up freeing them. The Europeans saw Native Americans as savages because they did not understand them, and did not want to. My found poem was inspired by these ideas, and spoken through the voice of one of these invading Europeans.

Found Poem- Half Past the Point of No Return

I created my found poem using the lyrics from the song “Glitter In The Air” by Pink.  I love Pink as an artist and ever since this song came out, it has been one of my favorites. I personally chose this song because it made it easy to pick out the lyrics for my found poem to describe the way I felt when I was going through a tough time last year.  I transferred from community college and I felt lost at first, with no one to turn to.

For the reader to better understand, I kept the lyrics: “the breath before the phrase”, “walk before the run”, “the fear before the flames”, because I felt that it described how there is always a starting point in whatever you choose to do. The only way to move on from that starting point is to push through and try new things. For a month I was set on transferring back home, and one day I decided to start getting involved with school activities such as speech club, and my sorority, and met so many people when doing so.

Another part of the song I kept for my found poem was: “There you are, Sitting, Clutching, Calling”. I was hoping for the reader to read this part slowly, showing more depth into the feelings I had when I felt like no one was there. My favorite part of the found poem is the last part to this song where it says: “Held your breath..asked yourself will it ever get better”. I chose to keep this for my found poem because when I once felt like I was drowning in my emotions, I always wondered if there was a better feeling than that way.

I really enjoyed creating this found poem and think M. NourbeSe Philip’s, ZONG!, did a great job emphasizing important points to the reader by choosing words that held the most meaning. I have never seen anything like her writing and as we read the book, the way she arranges the words are perfect demonstrations of the close reading we do in class and finding hidden meanings.

Found Poem

For my found poem, I chose to use an article titled “Liberal Professor Wants Activists to be Considered Veterans, Afghanistan Veteran Responds” from Dailywire.com. I chose this article as my subject because of the fact that it really got me very angry and annoyed that any professor would think that this would be a good idea to say. The professor had put this thought out on Twitter, and when people got wind of it, it went viral.

A USMC veteran who lost both of his legs as a bomb technition in Afghanistan responded to the professors thoughts, echoing what I think most people thought about what the professor said. The vet was clearly annoyed at this thought, calling it “Pretty laughable”. He also stated “These men and women — these GI Joes, GI Janes — they are regular people. They didn’t go to private school, they didn’t get their feelings hurt at the unfairness of things, they chose to serve their country, and they chose to do something that truly transcends these tit for tat politics that we play here in this country. To say this term applies to everyone who might get upset and hold up a sign somewhere, that doesn’t make any sense at all.”

What I included in my found poem are little important bits from the article, somewhat out of order, just to give the reader the things that really popped out and evoked a reaction out of myself and others who read the article.

If you would like to read the full article, here is the link:

https://www.dailywire.com/news/36618/liberal-professor-asks-activists-be-considered-kassy-dillon?fbclid=IwAR24L6o9w5VZoTSAyGo6WZ367tmeegBE2jyFMCnJuGeXMChQc6GuOzNDVKs

 

A Poem About Looking Back

(Just in case the photo is too hard to read: “You just might pull you a man nobody wants and get them to respect you. What’s scary is he may forget your name.”)

My found poem is short but holds a lot of meaning to me. The original piece is a song by Kanye West that belittles women by telling them what they need to do in order for a man to like them, so I kept that in mind while transforming the lyrics into something else. Rather than think about what people should do to make a relationship work, I reflected on what not to do when hoping to change a person. The truth is that people cannot fully change other people, nor should they try to when getting into a relationship with them.

I created this poem as a look back to someone that at one point was very special to me. This person claimed that they were afraid of commitment, so they didn’t like the idea of having a relationship (hence being the man that nobody wants). He eventually made an exception to his ideology and proved to be quite the gentleman. This exception came to an end when he ultimately went back to his original ideology and ended things out of the blue, acting as though we never knew one another. He was never a bad guy, he just didn’t handle the situation correctly, creating hurt feelings. This relationship was a while ago, but I think back from time to time and wonder if he has pushed me from his memory, forgetting my name.

While creating this poem, I liked the idea of not cutting up anything or rearranging the order of the words. By keeping the words in the same order that Kanye said them in, it gives the feeling to me that it’s possible to find a second meaning to the original verses. I liked the idea of being able to literally black out the offensiveness that the song portrays in order to highlight something slightly melancholy.

 

A Suburb’s Lasting Impression

The reason I chose “Jesus Of Suburbia” written by Green Day was simply because I wanted to pick the wordiest song I knew start to finish. I didn’t realize the song was so repetitive until I started playing around with it, which I now find to be perfectly representative of life in the suburbs. I broke the song up into sections to compare my life before and after leaving for college. The song’s original meaning is just one big build up where the protagonist realizes he hates everything about his home and his life, and at the end of the song he decides to run away. When finding new meaning to the song, I didn’t have to try. It’s new meaning from my point of view was evident, and I think that a lot of new college students could probably relate as well. Though I didn’t hate my life at home, and I didn’t really want to leave it, over time I realized this change was necessary for my personal growth. The constant monotony of my suburb was a deterrent to my life. While I think it was important for me to leave, I also think that growing up the way I did made a huge impression on my character. My found poem is composed less of the specific experiences of my transition and more of the feelings which came from those experiences. I think that creating my own found poem helped me understand M. NourbeSe Philip’s thought process while creating Zong!.

Continue reading “A Suburb’s Lasting Impression”

A Found Poem in Memory of Someone Special

I created my found poem in memory of my youngest cousin who had passed away recently. I used the song lyrics “Who You’d Be Today” by Kenny Chesney because I can personally relate to them.

Before I started to create my found poem, I printed off the lyrics and began to read them carefully. I crossed out the words and lines that didn’t quite fit with how I felt and kept the words that I could relate to and could tell a story. Like in also every song, verses repeat; so I crossed out the repeating verses as well. Next, I began to cut out one to three words from the lines I wanted to keep. I wanted to create a cross to symbolize healing for my family, but when I arranged the words on paper it didn’t look right. I didn’t place the words in any random order because I believe that the original order of the lyrics demonstrate good meaning. Instead, I just placed the words on the page where I thought would be relevant. With that being said, you will notice that I separated “I still can’t believe you’re gone” and “It ain’t fair you died too young” farther apart than “like a story had just begun”. This is because I feel as if the reader should read those lines slower and let them sink in and get a sense of what my family and myself, as an author, have felt.

Lastly, as a reader, you will notice that I separated “who you’d be today” into single words because I felt like this was the most important part of the poem. As the author of this poem and as a cousin, I am questioning as to who would my cousin be if this tragedy didn’t happen so soon in his life. Again, with the spacing of these words, I believe it will slow the reader down when they are reading this and understand the purpose of the poem. As you will see below my found poem, I have placed my cousin’s name at the bottom of the page as I dedicated this found poem to him. I was inspired by M. NourbeSe Philip with her idea of dedicating pages to others as well.

When I grow up I wanna be a List of Future Possibilities: Analysis of Chen Chen’s poetry

Hearing Chen Chen read his poems aloud gave me a whole new take on his writings. I studied his poetry in my Intro to poetry class, specifically his poem titled “To the Guanacos at the Syracuse Zoo.” Studying his writing of this poem, I expected him to be an outgoing sarcastic individual. However, when I actually heard him read his own poems he was very soft spoken and almost shy seeming. His poetry is much more subtle in its sarcasm in his own reading versus when one reads the poem themself. The subtle sarcasm and humor add to the uniqueness and cleverness of his work. This technique was very apparent in his second poem he read about angels. He repeatedly contradicts himself in a comical way stating how he isn’t religious, yet talks about god and an angel consistently. He says these figures are “creatures he made up” yet he “misses them.” These slight sarcastic contradictions make the poem innocent and humorous.

In addition to his subtle humor and sarcasm, Chen Chen’s incorporation of outside references including movies and songs. He incorporated coldplay songs and ideas to add to the sad melancholic tone of some of his poems. He also uses movies, but not as much for tone but for references and ideas. He used references from both Home Alone as well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer to his works. These allusions make the poems more relatable and familiar for readers. These references help to make his works so unique and interesting for readers.

I found that watching and hearing Chen Chen read his work created an entirely different view of his works. I feel that his works hook the reader and keep them interested the whole way through the poems. I really enjoyed seeing him in person and hearing the writer himself reading his poems the way he wrote them and intended for them to be heard.

Extra Credit: Chen Chen- When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

Tonight I went to see American poet, Chen Chen, who came to visit SUNY Cortland to read some of his work in the Jacobus Lounge. I was unsure of what to expect because I had never heard of him, but when he started reading his poems, so many emotions jumped out at me. These emotions included sadness, anger, confusion, and some humor. He wrote a lot to his childhood, how grew up, his Chinese background, and his current relationships in his life with his family and significant other. One specific line that he read that really stood out to me was “….Aren’t all great love stories at their core mistakes”-Chen Chen. This jumped out at me because I took it with sarcasm and thought it was humorous. Overall I really enjoyed going to listen to Chen Chen read his poems and would definitely go to listen to another poet sometime soon!

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