This post was forwarded from my Posterous Spaces archive. Auto-substitution is an interesting and enjoyable way to compose a poem.
This morning I was reviewing my current project. I had decided to provide examples of many poetic short forms for teachers to use in lessons, even though this is not the focus of the product.
I wrote the following poem following a word substitution format. Thinking about it during my revision process, I decided it was a little too abstract for fifth and sixth graders and replaced it, but it seemed a shame not to share it with someone, so here it is:
Languages: flowing rivers between thoughts
Rivers between flowing thoughts: Languages
Flowing thoughts between languages; rivers
Between languages, thoughts; rivers flowing
Thoughts—rivers; languages flowing between
If you want to write one of your own, use find and replace in Word. Noodle with the results until you get something that pleases you.
Filed under: creativity, poetry, Uncategorized, writing Tagged: poem, poetry, random, substitution
