Poetry Writing Exercises: The Text Collage

Most poetry writing exercises are designed to help you focus on one particular area – rhyme, alliteration, etc. But this one works on several levels.

First, this exercise provides a nice, zen-like break from your daily routine because it involves more than sitting down and writing.

Second, it’s a great alternative to recycling those growing stacks of old magazines that are sitting around collecting dust.

Plus, you can come back to this again and again and create a collection of text clippings for future poetry writing exercises.

You’ll need some supplies, a bit of time. Try to set aside an hour or two – and note that you can break it up over several days or even longer.

What You’ll Need (Supplies)

• Old printed material: magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, ads, photocopies, junk mail, etc.
• A small box, basket, jar, or other container
• A pair of scissors
• A glue stick or a roll of clear tape
• Highlighter (optional)

The Writing Exercise

Step One

Go through old magazines, pamphlets, printouts, and photocopies. Any printed material will do. Scan through the text to find words and phrases that are interesting and capture your attention and imagination. You can highlight the text that you like, or move straight ahead to step two.

Step Two

Cut out the phrases you’ve chosen and place them in your container.

Step Three

When you have a nice pile of clippings, pull some out and spread them across a flat work surface. Start sifting through the words, pairing different clippings together to see how the phrasing sounds. Place the ones you like best on a piece of paper, and use glue or tape to adhere them.

Alternative Poetry Writing Exercises (Variations)

• You can pen or pencil in additional language as you put your poem together.
• Instead of writing a poem, you can use this exercise to come up with descriptions or other inspirations for other forms of writing.
• Clip some images while you’re at it, and use them as part of your poetry writing exercises by creating a poetry collage that is also a piece of art.

When you’re all done, save the clippings so you can repeat this exercise again when the mood strikes. Just for fun, here’s a poem I crafted from this very exercise:

your name is on

your invitation would be disastrous
but keep something inside, forged
out of hard work
for this precious sweat and discontent
you have no choice
each time you take me
where the desert heat and the kick

disturb you

Come Back and Share

Feel free to come back and share the results if you decide to give this, or any other poetry writing exercises a try.

Have a great weekend and keep on writing!

If you have any poetry writing exercises to share, feel free to post them in the comments or send them in as a guest post.