Poetry: Take a Chance & See--Chance Poetry Form

Poetry

This week: Take a Chance & See--Chance Poetry Form

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"Poetry is the step beyond, which we were about to take, but were not certain of the way."

Carleton Noyes

"Every poem can be considered in two ways--as what the poet has to say, and as a thing which he makes..."

C. S. Lewis

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Take a Chance and See - Chance Poetry Form: A Brief History, How-to and Ways to Take Your Chances

Chance Poem (aka Aleatory aka Chance Operations aka Dadaist Poem)

There are a couple different ways to create a chance poem. Gather random words and

1) The poem is created word-for-word from the random draws (most often used with Chance Operations/Dadaist poems), or

2) The poem is inspired and created from several, but not all, the random words in your collected word pool.

If it’s created word for word, then it is often a random work that the poet has little influence over except for formatting. If it’s inspired from the words, then the poet can either add words to give it more depth, rhythm, and other poetic elements. Similarly, if the poet rearranges the random words, they can do so in a manner that creates depth, rhythm, etc.

BRIEF HISTORY

While it is impossible to know how long poet’s have used random word selections to create poetry, the Dadaist movement started about a hundred years ago (poets.org).

MUST HAVES

--A bunch of words and a random way to proceed with your poem as described above.

COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET’S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?

--Line count is up to you or dependent on the form you choose, if one is selected.

--Meter: Your choice, or dependent on the form.

--Number of stanzas.

--Rhyme or not, it’s up to you, or dependent on the form, if chosen.

Ways to Take Chances:

--Cut the words out of a newspaper, magazine article or similar source (place in a bag and your poem is created exactly as the words are drawn out of the bag or bowl [Dadaist], alternately you can use these words for your word pool and rearrange them to create poetry).

--Word dice (roll dice and use words rolled to inspire and create lines/stanzas).

--Word magnets or words written on 3x5 cards (start with a pool of random words and create poems with them). Word card pools can be drawn from a preselected bunch or created from randomly opening a book, magazine, etcetera and pointing to a word without looking.

--Can combine any of the above with Writing.com’s or other writing prompt generator

--Can combine any above with any known or self-created poetry form.

SOURCE NOTES:

Drury, John. the po.e.try dic.tion.ar.y. 2nd edition. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, 2006. Print.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5774

Theme: The first is an example of a Dadaist poem, and the rest were some award winners I liked.

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by A Guest Visitor

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by A Guest Visitor

My Flesh and I

[ASR]
I wrote this when I was in my early twenties and was struggling with an eating disorder.
by Frangipani

You've never been there.

[13+]
About being a dark place and the isolation this sparks- an old poem written when I was 16
by Antonia

Into the Wild Black Yonder

[13+]
An imaginary excursion inside a black hole's event horizon.
by Kraken through the Snow

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Comments on last month's newsletter:

By: BIG BAD WOLF is Merry

Comment: The best poem is the one you love.

By: chuckles123
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Comment: I worked hard on this poem about a girl writing her suicide note and I want to make it even better. And suggestions will be appreciated.

Let's see what our wonderful readers have to offer :)

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Thanks, Monty! Always good to hear.

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