Purple Poets
Writer-in-Residence: Kim Morrissey
(OTHER POETIC
TECHNIQUES)
FOUND POETRY PROJECT: In January
2010, Quaker Centre librarian Beverley Kemp asked The Purple Poets to create
found poems from 350 years of Quaker Testimonies of Peace. The Purple
Poets have invited other like-minded poets to create found poems to read
with them. The Reading will be held Thursday, 22.04. 2010 Friends Meeting
House, 173 Euston Road 2:30 p.m.
Exploring Poetic Techniques: Found Poetry
by Kim Morrissey
Found Poetry is poetry which has been created using another primary source
(a piece of prose, a person speaking, a list, even, in some cases, another
poem by someone else). The poet shapes this original material into a poem,
using the words and phrases found within the document.
It's a form of poetic puzzle; the 'Rules of the Game' are that you
can use a primary source, and only that source. To form your poem, you can
take words and phrases away, and re-order words and phrases, but you
can't add words. (Once you add your own words, it stops being a 'found poem,'
and becomes another sort of poem).
This technique is useful for creating authentic voices,
and for re-creating a character in history, because you are limited to another
person's use of vocabulary, imagery and perceptions, and beliefs.
Purple Poet Carol Moon's "To Be On Time"
is an example of listening, using another person's voice to create
a persona and a poem. The original story was told to the Purple Poets by
West Euston Time Bank member Cas, and Carol used his words and phrases to
create her own version.
For an example of re-creating a real person in history using the found poetry
technique, see the poem 'Louis Riel: Address to the Jury' in Kim
Morrissey's Batoche (the text is also found on the University
of Toronto website). The original Address to the Jury was 45 minutes long;
this poem is just over half a page, but the words in the poem come from the
trial transcript of Louis Riel's Address to the Jury.
Kim Morrissey
Louis Riel's Address to the
Jury
(a found poem)
Your Honours
Gentlemen of the Jury:
I cannot speak
English well, but am trying
because most here
speak English
When I came to the North West
I found the Indians suffering
I found the half-breeds
eating the rotten pork
of the Hudson Bay Company
and the whites
deprived
And so:
We have made
petitions I
have made petitions
We have taken time; we have tried
And I have done my duty.
My words are
worth something.
_______________________________________________________________
Teacher's note: from
Batoche, Page 55. Facing
page 54 contains the photograph of Riel addressing the jury at the end of
his trial.
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These pages are taken from the Study Capsule for Secondary
Schools (1999)
graphics design by Marshall Seltzer
http://www.cenlyt.com/Batoche/transcript.htm
To read an extract of an essay by Kim Morrissey on the
technique of found poetry (using the transcripts of the Trial of Louis Riel,
comparing various poems), click here
To read the complete
transcript of the Riel's Address to the Jury at his Trial for treason, click
here.
To see a photograph
of Louis Riel Addressing the Jury at his Trial in 1885 (project 2), click
here.
To read the text of the
poem 'Riel's Address to the Jury" (poem 2), click here.
PURPLE POETS, first drafts of Found
Poems, for theQuaker Peace Testimonies Project
Reading, April 22nd 2010, 2:30 p.m. Quaker Centre 173, Euston Road, London
(for details of reading, click here).
TO ALL WOMEN (1917)
THE FULL HORROR OF WAR:
From One Who is in the Midst of It
(A German Soldier's Appeal to Women)
First draft Purple Poets 21.01.2010
I've several times wondered
Why Women do not demand Peace.
This is the business of Women:
To see to it that the ground is cleared
For a mutual understanding.
To put a stop
To the bitterness
Of National Hatred
And for all women
To say to each other:
We will save our men
Further bloodshed
is senseless.
We will save our men
Of all nations.
TO ALL WOMEN!
The Call of a Higher Humanity.
(a found poem from the writing of Emily Hobhouse)
First draft Purple Poets 21.01.2010
Fellow women -
The War is crushing
Helpless millions.
The people
are perishing.
These are mostly Women
And children.
The well-being of children
Touches all.
We ask: must it continue?
We ask: why must it continue!
We ask: why?
FROM A GERMAN WOMAN
(Lida Gustava Heymann, Munich)
first draft Purple Poets 28.01.2010
All Europe was set on fire
This summer past
Autumn came and went
We are now in midwinter
And millions of men
Have been left on the battlefield
They will never see home again
No human speech is rich enough
To express such depth of suffering
Women!
Where is your voice
Sowing seeds of Peace?
Are you only great
In suffering and patience?
Come together!
Protest with all your might
The murdering of nations.
LETTER FROM A FRENCH MOTHER
November 21st, 1914
first draft Purple Poets 03.02.2010
My two sons
Have been in the trenches
Since the end of September
And have never slept
In a bed
It would be nothing
If the cold
Had not set in
So dreadfully
Many will never survive
They have nothing
To protect them in the night
And I think
What it must be like
In Russia
Helpless cripples
Their frozen limbs
Amputated
If you cannot make Peace
At least make a truce
And save thousands and thousands
Of human lives.
FROM A QUAKER WOMAN
(Theodora Wilson Wilson)
First draft Purple Poets 01.04.2010
The Egyptians were behind
The Red Sea in front.
The Red Sea did not part
Until the forward march began.
In every land
The peoples are crying out
Against this War
The Pied Piper, alluring the youth
With heroic and patriotic music
To destruction
Stop the music!
The continuation of this war is a crime
And a blunder
Friends, prove to the world
The principle of Peace
Is vital to our vision.
Go forward!
Make the first step to conciliation.
Blessed are the peace-makers!
They will be ranked sons of God!
MANIFESTO OF SWISS WOMEN, 1915
first draft Purple Poets 28.01.2010
Women's Day is overshadowed
By the Sign of The War
All around are burning towns
And villages.
The wounded lament
In pain and torment
Women and children
Weep in sorrow and misery
At the loss of their Brothers,
Husbands and Fathers.
Shall we wait for The Vote
For better times?
No! Our demand resounds
Stronger than ever!
We wish our sons and daughters
To be heroic
But not on the battlefield
Where people murder
And are murdered.
Swiss Women raise their voices
To the call of Votes for Women
And Peace.
Down with War!
FROM A GERMAN WOMAN
(Marie Engelmann, Dresden, 1914)
first draft Purple Poets 12.02.2010
Protest!
Protest!
Protest!
Protest, You Women!
Where-ever you see WAR
Underneath God's Sky
Raise your voices high!
Protest!
Protest!
Mankind is bleeding blood!
That blood is ours!
Mankind is killing life,
Those lives are ours!
Protest!
Protest!
Protest!
FROM RUSSIAN WOMEN
first draft purple poets 11.03.2010
Sisters,
Why is it that Kings
and Rulers of the Earth
Have a passion for freedom
Of other lands, but not their own?
Over the heads of the battling armies
Let us stretch out our hands
Comrades and sisters
And let our demand
Be heard throughout the world
We demand peace
W want to stop the war
NOW.
FROM A HUNGARIAN WOMAN:
THE LAST HOUR
(by Madame Gravé)
first draft 11.03.2010
As you, our Mother Earth
Grow young again
Every murder-battalion
Is arming for the Spring.
Let a hundred thousand
mother voices
Raise your voices
in overwhelming might!
The time is short!
Let us bring the champion cry l
Down With your arms!
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MORE Poetry
in Progress
Found Poetry Cycle read by TADS
TROUBLESOME PEOPLE
OTHER TOPICS (OTHER POETIC TECHNIQUES)
BLOOMSBURY TIME BANK PURPLE POETS
workshop leader Kim Morrissey
TBUK
Time Banking UK,
The Exchange,
Brick Row,
Stroud GL5 1DF
Tel: 01453 750952
info@timebanks.co.uk
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