found poem

noun

1. a composition made by combining fragments of such printed material as newspapers, signs, or menus, and rearranging them into the form of a poem.

Word History and Origins

Origin of found poem¹

First recorded in 1965–70; by analogy with found object

Example Sentences

Writing a good found poem — and in this case, an erasure — requires the poet to intervene on the source text.

Read more on New York Times

For July 4, Ms. Truax created a “found poem” by extracting lines from Alexander Hamilton’s essays.

Read more on New York Times

For the July 4 holiday weekend, she produced a “found poem” by extracting words from an Alexander Hamilton essay.

Read more on Seattle Times

Carefully paste each word down, and now you have your own found poem.

Read more on New York Times

Gregg found poems in nature, in urban settings like a shelter for homeless women, in broken relationships.

Read more on Seattle Times