For my page in the Altered Book group anniversary book, I decided to do a found poem. I've got an old novel called My Lady of the Fog (Ralph H Barbour, 1908) and another Russian text called Selected Stories (Daniil Kharms, 1919). Very different from each other in feel, I decided to use one of the illustrations from Kharms's book and do a found poem using a page from Barbour's.
Really, I couldn't do it the other way around: I can't read Russian!
Here's the instructions that I wrote two years ago for using tissue paper as a guide when creating found poems. This project was done in a similar fashion as the steps below will show.
Materials & Tools
Card stock paper
Pencil, colored pens
Plain white tissue paper
Cutting mat and ruler
Exacto knife
2 book pages, at least one with text
Glue stick
2. Find the words and phrases that you want to use in your poem and put a box around them with pencil. Place a piece of tissue paper over the page, and mark the corners. Trace each word box onto the tissue paper.
3. Place the tissue paper over the other page. This page can be an illustration, photo, or more text...whatever you choose. Make sure the corners are lined up properly, and cut through each box with an Exacto knife. Discard the tissue paper.
4. Stack the pages with the card stock on the bottom, the text in the middle, and the page with cut outs on top. Adhere them all together with a glue stick or other low-moisture adhesive. Decorate the top page as you choose. I outlined each phrase with colored markers, and I think I'll probably add some more embellishments before I declare this page finished.
Copyright 2009 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.
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