lost and found

I think that it is remarkably easy to forget the beauty and mystery in the everyday -- the bumpy skin of an orange -- the way that birds cock their heads to the side to look more carefully -- the funny things that we say and think. One way to recapture the fascination with the mundane is through a found poem. A found poem is one that is made of a very simple group of phrases, like the description of the dishes on a chinese menu, or the instructions to put together your entertainment center -- that are joined in a new way, like broken into lines or bunched into stanzas. One of the most famous found poems is by William Carlos Williams:

This is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
the were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

I hope that you will try to write or "find" your own found poem today (or tomorrow or the day after that) Here is mine -- ta da:

Ants and Grasshoppers

Stop that
don't work
so hard

you make
me feel
bad like

I have
to work
too and

I just
want to
read today