WRITING PROMPT ~
FEBRUARY 2026
Literary Collages: Exploring Found Poetry
A found poem is composed of words and phrases found in other texts like “newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems” (Poets.org). Writing a found poem is all about cutting, pasting, reordering, and reshaping existing texts to create new meaning.
Alexa Gutter, Poet Laureate 2013
The Poet at Work
I stumbled upon the idea for this poem seven years ago as I was reading through a folder of old letters that I keep in a bottom desk drawer, weighted down by filled-up journals and boxes of photographs. I do not sift through this folder often, but I am always aware of its presence. It contains handwritten proof of the past—postcards my friends touched with their sun-warmed hands, scrawled admirations from old loves whom I haven’t spoken to in a decade or more, notes my mother sent after I left for college. There is much poetry to be “found” in these treasures.
Once I decided to piece together snippets of the letters to create a poem, I read through to find commonalities. I found a couple that mentioned trains, for example, which led to lines six and seven. Sometimes I lifted whole sentences or longer phrases from the texts and sometimes I stitched tiny fragments to other tiny fragments.
Overall, my goal was to create new meaning from the existing texts. I thought: if I explode these letters and then splice them back together in a thoughtful way, what will the new letter say? As I read it again, these years later, I think it says something about connection—how and why we connect to the people in our lives, and the limitations of those connections. Isn’t a letter just an effort to connect? Isn’t a poem?
Start Writing
Think about a piece of writing that moves you or that you feel drawn to. Choose a text or small group of texts. Alternatively, look for your source in unlikely places: Instagram DM’s, news articles, or even your Science textbook.
Look for interesting, evocative words or phrases in your chosen text(s). Highlight, underline, or circle these words and phrases.
Create a list of your words—the more the better. Then, read over your list and cut any unnecessary or uninteresting words.
Consider how you can create new meaning by reordering the words and phrases you have lifted from your original texts. Aim for the unexpected. Try many configurations. Play and have fun! Pay attention to things like tone and imagery.
Revise. If necessary, you can tweak punctuation or grammar to improve clarity and flow—even if that isn’t exactly how the text appeared originally. Finders, keepers: it’s your poem!
Here’s an example:
Dear Alexa,
A Found Poem of Letters Received
Your letter has finally arrived.
For a while I thought it would never come.
Can this kind of relief sustain us through our lives?
I am writing to you from the café of my hotel.
I’m writing this letter standing up.
I’m on the same train I was on the last time I wrote:
a train leaving Wisconsin, a train from Krakow.
I’m not sure why it is taking me this long to write you a letter;
the city is beautiful, yet I’m freezing—
what the hell is wrong with this place?
There’s nothing here but blind grasping at the world.
I should just stop writing this letter;
I have thrown caution to the wind.
What I’m trying to say is
how refreshed I felt after seeing you—momentary relief.
Can this kind of relief sustain us through our lives?
The answer: maybe, or barely.
I thought it was you, speaking half sentences as we fell asleep.
I hid because I wanted to say I love you, I have known you
for most of my life. Never has my heart beat so fast—
you were so beautiful, so sad, the most whole.
The other night I dreamed
you could see what everyone else sees.
The truth is, my dreams, your dreams are
indecipherable. Also, forgive my handwriting.
I thank you for suggesting I write you.
Attached, please find a poem.