By Sheryl Walker
From: poemcrazy by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge
Task4: Create a “found” poem using the Golden Lines attachment and at least three lines from poems we’ve encountered this year. You many also include original lines of your own. The final poem needs to be at least 20 lines. Attach a paragraph of at least seven sentences that includes the lines that you chose to use from poems we’ve encountered, their respective sources, and an explanation of your choices.
Golden Lines
Take the lines/words below and arrange them into a “found” poem. You may add filler words such as “a” “an” and “the,” but the majority of the poem should be the words below. You may mix and match words and phrases of your own as well. Feel free also to change pronouns (ie: change “he” to “she” or “I” to “you”).
Childhood is
Wet strands of hair stuck to my face as I yelled,
Watching a puff of breath dissolve in the autumn morning
For the mattress of safety, slipping, sliding
As if toward home plate
I am not cruel, only truthful
I’m leaving now to slay the foe
Please don’t cry
I want to see and touch and hear
I’m off to find my world my dreams
Equality and I will be free
You declare you see me dimly
We know a shameful past
Sometimes he would draw and it wasn’t anything
He kept it under his pillow and would let no one see it
When he started school, he brought it with him
And he always drew airplanes and rocket ships like everyone else
Fight the battles high and low
Seize my victories where they lie
Though there are dangers, there are fears
When you are old and grey and full of sleep
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you
And loved the sorrows of your changing face
Rain poured down in a curtain of strings as I stood
The field was a muddy mess worthy of pigs
Stained and streaked
The eye of the little god
But it flickers
Reflect it faithfully
She rewards me with tears
Her face that replaces the darkness
Carve it in stone
Dark
Arm stiff and his feet flat on the floor
And she said it didn’t matter
Murmur a little sadly how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
In a coat soaking up water
No longer wrestled but danced
In each other’s arms, cautiously trying to dip
The other in the chocolate batter at their feet
Teeth grinding
Cradled like a baby through bodies
The nutcracker was never more graceful
Fishing with your grandma
Playing hookie
It dies
I am silver and exact
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands
Lie out on the grass and look up at the sky
He hated to hold the pencil and chalk
Hiding under lima beans
Watch cartoons
I think it is a part of my heart
We have lived a painful history
How many loved your moments of glad grace