Today I wanted to walk through the steps of creating a poem from the pages of an old book. The book I have been altering for quite some time now is “Prepatory German Reader”. I bought the book at the Trident book store on Pearl, in their $1 book cart. I loved the feel of the cover, the color of the pages, and the super cool german font. Although the majority of the book is in german the footnotes are often in English and can make great poems. I learned this technique in my Intro to Poetry class in college and really liked it. We had to make a poem like this for an assignment after researching the Poet Tom Phillips work, The Humament. There are many ways to go about finding poems in old books, and a quick Google search will enlighten you the possibilities. However here is my process:
Step 1: Circle the words you want to turn into a poem. This is easier on some pages than others. For example the introduction and afterword were in all English so I found quite compelling poems. The page I am using for this post was less engaging but I made it work all the same
Step 2: Ink the lines you have created. I decided I didn’t like how heavy the bottom of the page was so I circled some stuff around the page. Another charming feature of this book is the handwriting of the previous owner. I circled some of his/her writing and some numbers.
Step 3: Fill in the rest of the page. I have been really enjoying squiggle arts. They are so calming to create. I drew lines around the shapes created by my words until the page was filled. I ended up with something looking somewhat like a topographical map
Step 4: Color it in! I used Crayons. (The ones from the other day)
Step 5: Make final edits. I decided I really hated the little shape in the middle of the page and filled it in the pen I used earlier. I also decided to embellish the page with some of my own words to add meaning (or not). Finally I signed it.
The Poem Reads-singing tribe56 25 30mythology of the air, the stormspowerful riverstwelve tribes. race twelve goddesses.ancient power
Keep a look out for more pages of my altered book “Prepatory German Reader.” I would like to have it filled by January 2014. *Fingers Crossed*
