collage

Songbirds by J.I. Kleinberg

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Source & Method: This visual poem is from an ongoing series of collages built from phrases created unintentionally through the accident of magazine page design. Each chunk of text (roughly the equivalent of a poetic line) is entirely removed from its original sense and syntax. The text is not altered and includes no attributable phrases. The lines are sourced from different magazines.​

Artist, poet, and freelance writer, J.I. Kleinberg is a Puschart nominee and winner of the 2016 Ken Warfel Fellowship. Her found poems have appeared in Diagram, Heavy Feather Review, Rise Up Review, The Tishman Review, Hedgegrow, Otoliths, and elsewhere. She lives in Bellingham, Washington, and blogs most days at thepoetrydeparment.wordpress.com.

 

Me Too by Mary Ardery

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Method: I combined magazine clippings as well as some of my own photos to make this collage. The words “me too” are handwritten. My intention was to show a variety of female body parts, disconnected, mixed into a world of beauty. Women are often told to make themselves beautiful–and then blamed for looking so appealing: “How could the man resist?”

Source: A few of my own photos, but mainly magazine images and words from The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Good Housekeeping, and one or two more that I cut out awhile back and no longer have the magazine covers to cite.

Mary Ardery’s poems and photos have been published in A Midwestern Review, Manuscripts, and Eye on the World. After living and working in Asheville, NC’s Blue Ridge Mountains for two years, she has returned home to the Midwest to pursue her MFA at Southern Illinois University.

 

No by Asma Firdous

Artwork

Source: Durjoy Dutta’s novel, Till the Last Breath

Method: I found this book in the trash box and thought about putting it to some good use. I had learned about blackout poetry some years back and thought about trying it. I soon turned into an addict of sorts. Blackout is like journaling to me. I always find myself.

Asma Firdous is doing her BA(Hons) in English literature and struggles with discomfort and restlessness in everything she does.

Flying by Kathy Douglas

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Sources: Flying includes cut outs from issues of The New York Times Magazine, The Sunday New York Times, New Yorker Magazine, and local advertising circulars.  Selected words and punctuation marks are made by hand.

Process: Part chance and part deliberation, the coffee table poems are written by selecting words and phrases based on size, color and themes. Starting with a loose selection process, choices progress organically towards themes. The cut out “bank” of text is placed on the table and moved around to find connections.Then poems are written by synthesizing syntax, meaning,design, and elements of poetry. Initially written in one sitting, the editing process may last through the week, provided the dog doesn’t fan the table with his tail.

Kathy Douglas is writing a coffee table book of coffee table poems.  She recently completed a book of blackout poems entitled On The Ward of Omens based on Mary Daly’s Beyond God the Father: Toward A Philosophy of Women’s Liberation. Work can be found in Calyx, Drunken Boat, The Cafe Review, Noctua, Right Hand Pointing, After The Pause, shufpoetry, and Poetry WTF?! She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Bennington College. medium.com/@kathrynd Tweets @kathydouglas

Destruction and Repair by Erin Marie Hall

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Source: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, entries on Bipolar Disorder & Cyclothymia
Method: My source text being the DSM-V, I selected words and phrases from relevant diagnostic criteria and symptom descriptions that allowed me to explore the disorders that have caused significant disruption in my life, the havoc they wreaked, and the potential for healing in their wake. I maintained a very literal voice, as the process of describing mental health issues is one that requires intense vulnerability.
Erin Marie Hall is a poet and collage artist from South Bend, Indiana. She received her BA in English from Indiana University and spends her free time doing karaoke and going through way too much Mod Podge.