While I have been using some degree of found poetry in my work almost since the beginning, pure found poetry from a single source has a stench of plagiarism about it. Like alleged found poet Hart Seely, who wrote a found poetry book where the single source was the press releases of Donald Rumsfeld arranged in poem-like lines.
It seems to be common to use alleged found poetry of this sort to express hatred and contempt for another person whose political views you don’t like. Personally I think hating someone for being a Republican or a Democrat isn’t any nobler than hating someone for being a Jew or a Black person— but maybe that’s just me.
What I use in my own work is not pure found poetry, but one which uses found elements from several sources. While I often select the material almost at random, it is my work in arranging the words, in rejecting some lines and keeping others, that makes such a poem mine and not the work of others. I also incorporate lines of more ordinary poetry created by me to link the found lines together.
In an internet source that explains how to do found poetry in a dreary school classroom setting, it recommends finding a theme as a step in the work. WRONG! Theme-first is how you end up with Hart Seely publishing a poetry book using only the words of a public figure he hated. Deciding themes at that point turns the work from poetry to you preaching your opinion at people.
The theme of my works incorporating found poetry are in part suggested by my original found lines. I suppose my subconscious mind may be working on the theme issue but my conscious mind is busy looking at the words and combinations of words, seeking out words/combinations with a strong impact, powerful images, interesting sound combinations, or just stuff that’s funny or weird enough to please me.
Knowing the true theme usually comes after I’ve lived with the poem long enough to see new things in it. And if a reader of the poem sees an entirely different theme, that’s good too.
