Accidental Poetry

I don’t know how many people know this, but I write poetry and have done since I was very young. It’s an incredible way of expressing emotion, and meaning, and a depth to your thoughts that doesn’t seem to appear so easily in day-to-day life. I never publish poetry online because I feel like I’m enforcing it on people in a medium that isn’t quite right for it anyway, and that it is something very personal and selfish and so I doubt whether people would relate in that way. It is best read from the cold pages of a book, or some kind of physical origami, where the readers know what they’re getting into (i.e. it’s poetry-oriented). But poetry is a beautiful thing, and there is no other writing form like it.

About 2 weeks ago, I was bored and on twitter, as you are sometimes in this modern life, so I decided to plagiarise all the people on my timeline. I took a line from each tweet on the page, fashioned it into a poem and observed what came up. Originally, it was only intended for my own amusement and that was that. But I discovered a strange sort of connection, whether it be a coincidental flow or a juxtaposition, between the lines which made it sound much more so like a poem than I anticipated. As a result, and because it is not my property or my emotive explorations but for in the way it was constructed, I wanted to share it with you. As a one off. I hope you don’t mind.

This was an accidental collaboration from online contemporary poets, whose voices are listed below:
@MrsNix_ @shutup_elle @SincerelyTumblr @itsryanhere @PHabbo @veguntold @Holly_Robyn @jheil @jonathanmprince @Queen_UK @levvis_ @hellory4n @Markgatiss @DTForum @NimbleDave @smdriedger @papertimelady @coryldork @seapeekay @Maddyology @stephenfry @EllieCalder @tinatbh @HUGOBOSS @Neligahn

And thanks to Retinart for the texture I used here. I just thought I’d make it look all authentic seeing as I usually insist on poetry in books. None of the tweets were selected individually; a line or two were taken directly from each tweet down the timeline with minor editing. The only changed bit is the format; I adapted it into a poem structure for fluency and gave it a title. If you are in the list of people above and have made a contribution, I am happy to credit you with more links if you get in contact. I have stolen from you. I hope you can forgive me.

This whole process got me thinking about how things can form ‘accidental poetry’ and ‘accidental art’, and how many things in life actually happen that way. Sometimes, we ought to step back from the world and realise that there is beauty in the smallest, and apparent dullest, daily or menial of things. Please leave me your accidental poetry in the comments if you would like.

06 comments on “Accidental Poetry

  • Elena , Direct link to comment

    I love the idea of taking a piece from different tweets and putting them together. It came out great, and it really looks like any poem our teachers would make us decipher. I like how you could pick from the different tweets and make each stanza look like they were written by the same person.

    I enjoy poetry, but I never actually get around to reading it. I love when I randomly come across it on blogs, tumblr or other places on the internet. I used to really dislike poems until about two years ago when we got an amazing teacher in English Literature. She and my poem-loving-friend sort of opened my mind up for it. I used to be like “nah, I don’t like poems, they don’t make sense so I’m sticking to books.”

  • Chynna , Direct link to comment

    I didn’t know you wrote poetry! Actually, I might have. We’ve been blog buddies for a long time, now. A lot has happened.

    This is really cool. If I were into poetry, I would definitely want to do something like this.

  • Holly , Direct link to comment

    This is a clever idea for a poem. It shows that there is such a mixture of people on twitter, all with their own random little lives.

    I actually don’t enjoy poetry, so take it as a compliment that I enjoyed this. 😉 Blame English Literature at school for my hatred. I’d like to have a go at writing a poem sometime though.

  • Soph , Direct link to comment

    Yeah, it’s just a really neat little experiment, and it’s funny how thing’s turn out. It’s not usually what you expect. I agree, everything gets quite busy, so you end up just being able to do one kind of writing. You should do some more poetry. Give the old friend a visit! Haha xD

  • Cassie , Direct link to comment

    I’ve written a poem a little like this before. I decided I would only use quotes found in Green Day songs. That was a few years ago, but if I remember right, it turned out rather dark (as most poems are) but fairly good.

    I used to write poems a lot more than I do now. I’m not sure why that is. I have a few notebooks that have poems every few pages at my parents’ house from when I was younger, but with only a few exceptions, I haven’t written poetry since then. I guess I used to write a lot more in general then. Now, it’s mostly my blog and lab reports.

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