poppoeming

[poppoeming]

Like these erasures? Check out my Substack, PopPoetry, where I wrote about this project at the outset of the month and write about the intersection of poetry and pop culture more generally. Subscribe if you like what you read!

The ritual of making found poetry every dang day in the month of October has been a scaffold for me in these strange times. I used to shy away from 30/30-type projects that forced artists to prioritize quantity, but having engaged in four or five such projects in the last two years has revitalized my work and given me a greater sense of what I’m capable of. It goes without saying that they’re not all winners! But turning the faucet on every day, so to speak, keeps the water clear.

Though I didn’t plan on it, this project also became very visual, crafty, and hands-on in a way that, as a writer, feels like a meaningful foray. In times of trouble, making physical objects has always been a balm, and working with various media like watercolor, ink, tape, glitter, and even soil has been so liberating.

I make take these down if I intend to send them out or use them elsewhere, or I might let this Tumblr live on as a memorial to this bizarre and fun project. For now, enjoy!

Thanks for reading, and don’t be a stranger: You can find links to everywhere I live online here on my Linktree. See you around!

[poppoeming]

October 31: I drove home

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 241.

[poppoeming]

October 30: DEAD

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 241.

[poppoeming]

October 29: You’re not going to believe this

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002.

[poppoeming]

October 28: Be sweet

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 229.

[poppoeming]

October 27: the bull

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 208. 

[poppoeming]

October 26: Bless his heart

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 22 & 226.

[poppoeming]

October 25: Without a word

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 210.

[poppoeming]

October 24: a good memento

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 215.

[poppoeming]

October 23: fed up

I’d gotten fed up tired

of humans

Dallas a black velvet jeweler’s box

I wish I’d had the strength

to keep it Inside

was a note that said I’d worn

my tongue out

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 217.

[poppoeming]

October 22: over and over

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002.

[poppoeming]

October 21: The bullet is || the wound

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 213.

[poppoeming]

October 20: Things are bad to do

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 206.

[poppoeming]

October 19: against the apocalypse

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 196.

[poppoeming]

October 18: You came

closer

Are you excited

a thousand-year-old

child on his birthday eve

breathe slowly

closer

imagine

a telephone the buttons

light up, the buttons

make too

much noise

You came

with God immolation

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 160.

[poppoeming]

October 17: we were the damned

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 190.

[poppoeming]

October 16: without sex

Source material: Harris, Charlaine. Living Dead in Dallas. Ace Books, 2002, p. 192.