2013 Poetry Month « April Halprin Wayland – Children's Book Author & Poet

In honor of Poetry Month, Easter, Passover,
and all things rabbity, my free-verse picture book,
To Rabbittown, originally published by Scholastic,
is 99 cents on iTunes, Kindle, Nook–yippee!

Download the free Kindle for PC
if you don’t have an eReader.
.

…for more children’s poetry links go to
this delicious blog:
Jama’s Alphabet Soup

Wait...what do you mean it needs some editing?????

No, I disagree...I really think the words, "severed head" work in this poem.

Yeah, well, thanks for your suggestions. Let me think about them; NO.

I do believe I'm entitled to a nap after an exhausting session ripping my poem apart..

This is Eli. Pronounced eeee-lye.

Hi there! Welcome to RuffDrafts.com–I’m glad you’re here!

My original poems, posted each day of National Poetry Month 2013, are imperfect. Messy. This is your chance to sneak a peek behind the scenes—before a poem is polished and published! (For my poems in 2010, 2011 & 2012, click on the Poetry link in the menu above.)

My friend Bruce Balan and I critique each other’s poems every day…so you’ll see Bruce’s comments on some of the poems.

Thanks for following so well. I’m tempted to take you to the dog park and let you romp off-leash… Ready? Let’s begin!

April 8

MESSAGE FROM BEYOND: A FOUND POEM

A POODLE’S MISSPELLED,
GRAMMATICALLY INCORRECT MESSAGE
TO HER OWNERS AFTER HER DEATH ~ rough draft!
by April Halprin Wayland

I cross wide white spirals.

Seen angeles!

I have finally been to Animal Valley:

many wide days running in very friendly traffic.

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The poem above is a found poem. The words are pulled from the following Craigslist posting of found dogs:

1 white poodle type dog. Short body, wide, white hair in spirals.
1 female, cross breed, chihauhua and terrier
Found and taken to Los Angeles West Valley Animal Control on Plummer.
Had been seen running in traffic many days, finally caught them.
Can tell they have been someones pets.
Very friendly once caught. Wish I could have kept them.

A Found Poem is one you’ve put together with the words from another source. Poet Paul B. Janeczko, in his anthology, A Kick in the Head writes, “A found poem is a piece of writing that wasn’t intended as poetry. In other words, it’s up to the poet to find poetic words and phrases in a prose piece…and declare them a poem, often by arranging the words and phrases on the page.”

Poet and anthologist Georgia Heard sent me a few rules for a found poem:

~ The original author (or source) must not have intended the text to be poetry
~ Finders may cut words and add line breaks but may not add words
~ Finders may add their own title
~ The original source of the text must be cited and can be included as part of the poem

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