Holiday Found Poem

Have you ever created a Found Poem? You take printed material, like a newspaper or magazine article, cut out words ransom-style, arrange them to form a poem, and use a glue stick to attach them to plain paper. Back in my teaching days, we got newspapers in the classroom once a week and I'd occasionally assign a Found Poem. I loved seeing the poems my students would create. Even though they were using the same newspaper, their poems were always completely different.

Our local newspaper ran a story about the Christmas at the Waterfront event, with photos from the Lighted Boat Parade. Our family loves attending and seeing the creative ways that people light up their boats. I thought it would be a fun challenge to make a Found Poem about our family traditions. I cut out the photos and a bunch of random words from the headlines in that day's paper, but as I arranged and rearranged them, my poem went a different direction.

Christmas Memories

Preserve family tradition: 

songs, treats, and making wreaths.

More important:

Including Christ this season.

Most of the words in my poem came from headlines that have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. That's half the fun and it really challenges your creativity. If you've never done a Found Poem, I encourage you to give it a try!