making do with what’s at hand
A still prominent understanding of poetry expects the original expression of inner thoughts and feelings. Another kind of practice turns to working with what is “out there,” including “unpoetic” material. The found poem would provide a familiar instance of the alternative. Its making do acknowledges, or finds, or positions such texts in ways that invite us to appreciate what we usually would not find promising, much less productive.
We will consider what might be done with what might seem unworthy or inappropriate. You would find Marjorie Perloff’s writing helpful here when she supposes that in the digital age the best words for a given occasion may well not be one’s own at all. What she calls “conceptual lyric” or “unoriginal genius” asks us to accept deliberate acts of appropriation or repurposing. I would expect that most of the workshop would involve the discussion and the illustration of what lies behind that understanding. We will also talk about what sorts of things participants might have a go at.
Presented in partnership with the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture at the University of Manitoba.