I LOVE Orson Scott Card!

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I love the way that we laugh until we cry
Dance until we die

It... confuses me a little... I don't see where the hamsters come in. But I like the possesive tone in the "we built it" line. It sounds like some Gollum-like entity cringing from the criticism of overpopulation, and lashing out by saying it's theirs, and they can do what they want.
I would give you a prize just for that line.

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"He had a heart that could have held the empire of the world; and, in the end, he had to content himself with a cellar."

"Oh, well I never, was there ever a cat so clever as Magical Mister Mistofelees?"

Interesting! The poem title made me think it was going to be rather silly at first but as I read I was surprised. Very well done, the poem makes you think and it all flows very well together.

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Unfortunately, I type faster than I think.

Thanks! The title is a little weird, it's a quote from the Clarke story and I'm thinking of shortening it to "How long for a man?" I haven't decided yet. Meh. *ponder*

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Thanks! I've been worrying about how much sense it makes and how well it reads, you have put my mind at ease

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Your poem is so beautiful. I love the whole thing, but my favorite part is this line: "...we spend our whole lives fighting gravity. It wears down our muscles, pulls our stomachs out of shape."

Found poems are interesting, I wrote one too recently. Your's turned out so well, giving a different context to someone else's words...Lovely piece of writing on your part. Good work!

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it's spring when the world is puddle-wonderful

thank you!

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Excellent work Maura!!

This poem is both well crafted and deeply philosophical. For me, this poem seems to examine both the growth of human society and the consequences of attempting to alter the natural world.

We
human beings had reinvented ourselves
“Think of them up there,” he said.
They’re critics of architecture! They’ve
come to beautify “Six billion of them, packing the continents
– and now crowding over into the sea.”
We built it, we humans. It’s ours.

I found this passage very interesting! Upon abandoning the nomadic lifestyle for more agricultural (and thus structured) living, human beings have consequently to cure the “disorder” of the natural world. We have become “critics of architecture” which does not conform to the needs of capitalism.

Beautifully done! This piece, while maintaining the seemingly disjointed nature of “treated” found poetry, is cohesive and introspective!

Thank you for participating in my workshop! What aspects of found poetry do you enjoy or dislike?

Wow! Thank you, I'm so glad you liked it. I'd heard of found poetry before the workshop, but I didn't know a lot about it or how it was done. I think that the concept of found poetry is very interesting, but I think it takes a certain kind of writer to really commit to writing excellent pieces with lines drawn from a variety of sources and then edit the collection so that it expresses exactly what the author is trying to say. I don't think I'm that kind of writer. What interests me more than purely "found" poetry is work derived from found lines, but rewritten in parts to express the poet's ideas or elaborate on their interpretation of the original author's words. Adrienne Rich does this in multiple poems - I can't call to mind which right now - but I think that's a much more easily manipulable form of found poetry, and one that I'm more likely to pursue.

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