Mash Up

Today’s revision exercise suggests you select several rough and unfinished poem drafts to remix or combine. Here are a few approaches for consideration:

More is More: Combine two (or more) poems into one longer poem. Feel free to rearrange stanzas or lines. Consider creating a sectioned poem or a poem with parts.

Half and Half: Cut two poems in half and switch them around so the first half of poem one is now the first half of poem two and the first half of poem two is now the first half of poem one. Try variations of this process using three poem draft, or even four.

Print and Cut: Print copies of your chosen poem drafts and cut them apart by lines, stanzas or words. Place these cutouts on a clean table top and move them around. Experiment with different layouts and ordering until you have a new poem — one that feels finished or one that could be finished with just a little more revision or editing. Alternatively, the process may trigger an entirely different poem.

Line Roulette: Write a new poem using random lines from several poem drafts. You can add order to the process by making your own rules, such as using first lines from four or more poems for the first stanza, second lines for the second stanza, and so on.