FOUND POEM
Attributed to Septuagenarian: love is what happens when I die (March 2021)
One doesn’t have to imagine good and evil amidst all this terror
sadness, the bones and the blood surrender
we can make a difference we are all somebody
we are not on the backs on the backs on the backs
of sorrow
that preceded
head separated from body
body separated from country
family separated
love guarantees memory madness
guns in white rooms the ghost
of a man an unholy ghost trying to rewrite the story
what if what if what if asking the questions is [not] enough; sometimes
I feel like a boxer punching the world
is heavy that’s when the silence is broken
not with words but with images children
didn’t know what to make of the bickering
children got lost in the silences babies suffering;
the father the mother the siblings gone
a newspaper headline
to the wicked and the wise there is a difference
between opinion and truth, a space where dying
to love where freedom is clearly not where in the world we are
divisive and our lives are at risk
tolerate a difficult word; racism, white men with assault rifles; death
is temporary
history implodes on a regular irregular heartbeat the charade is over this year
love
like a sorcerer reads palms this is love choking on air,
ready to survive pedestals
collapse amidst a pandemic
hallelujah!
as I sip my morning coffee it is grief it is death it is love;
hate travels the ♥ broken is what saves us.
© Sherry Quan Lee January 12, 2021
ASSIGNMENT: I’ve been thinking about the recent insurrection at the capitol, the fast and flowing media coverage, the attempts to oust the 45th, etc. My thought was, as a poet, I should write a found poem based on various print and even video media; but, I thought it would be complicated because of copyright, what is fair use, and how to attribute my sources (unless there is no thought of publishing it). Instead, I turned to my own writing using only text from my forthcoming book. Try this as an assignment, use words and phrases from what you have previously written and “find” a poem. I started with a goal in mind, to discover what I might have, perhaps unknowingly, said beyond the personal, have I entered the world? Having a theme in mind isn’t necessary, it is enough to just randomly choose words and phrases you are drawn to as you reread what you have written over a particular span of time.
NOTE: The poem published here is a first draft.
