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.