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Found poetry

I don’t think anyone’s posted a good piece of found poetry lately. Here’s one called “Types of Bitches” for your consideration.

An excerpt:

10) Bitches that be trying to steal your man
11) Hoochie looking bitches
12) Ain’t got no damn sense bitches
13) Stupid bitches that act dumb
14) Bitches who can only get a dirty boy
15) Want to be jocking bitches
17) Bitches who think they better than me
18) Instigating bitches
19) Talking behind your back bitches
20) Loud mouth bitches

17 thoughts on “Found poetry

  1. From the linked site:


    This is a pathetic display of ignorance and violence from the child. It’s an indictment of our so-called educational system.

    And anyone considering this a “gold mine” must be an ignoramus, as well. If anything, it’s a cesspool.

    1. Not that it makes it any more excuseable, but I have a hard time believing a 3rd grader wrote that, taking into account penmanship and spelling/vocab.

      I might be under estimating 3rd graders though.

      Anyway, I was going to comment about how if this was posted on Giant right now, it’d be a hotbed. Everything over there is charged with Justin’s recent meta-comment post.

          1. No, it certainly wasn’t schoolwork but it speaks to the failure of some schools; failures of the government to respond to poverty and its resultant impoverished minds, among countless other consequences; failures of at least one family; and failures of so-called educated class that takes things like this as opportunities for cheap laughs.

            There’s lots of crap out there. What’s the point of simply pointing to it?

            1. I’m sorry you find my found poem without merit, but I personally think the failure of schools, government, families and the educated classes notable, and poetry about it very important.

              1. Hey Shya,

                Considering that this is not a site where contributors publish their own poetry (found or otherwise), I read your post as the snarky thing that it is.

                I’d be happy to have a discussion anytime about the aesthetics of found poetry, a form as valid and as full of potential as any other.

            2. I guess I like the follow up comment that basically says just because kids write stupid, gross lists like this (I know I did lots of stupid things and naughty things because it was thrilling or just fun) doesn’t mean much about how this kid is or going to be.

              Crap is funny for some people. Cursing is fun for some people. I’m a huge fan of gross and stupid moments in life,but that doesn’t mean that’s all I am. I remember when my son and I were walking down the street and I figured out what an “ass casserole” (the word came from a cd review in Magnet) was and we literally fell down on the streets in Brooklyn and laughed til we cried. This is a kid whose English teacher said to me last week (and who recently read two Cormac McCarthy books) “whatever you do with your son, you should bottle it.” So although there are sad and terrible families in the world, this piece of paper isn’t proof of one in my mind.

            3. Crit theory question:

              Regarding the issues it raises about these things and the resultant conversation surrounding these issues, does this succeed as successful “found art”?

              1. I think it depends on what you take as the context, i.e. where the poem has been found. If I were to have found this list on the floor of a classroom, for instance, the poem would be very different than having found it on a web site which likens itself to “a giant garden hose squirting from the hand of an indifferent God.” That’s not an answer, per se, but one possible way to frame it.

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