The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems by Georgia Heard Book Review (Mod 3)

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Bibliography: 

Heard, Georgia. The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems. Roaring Book Press: New York, 2012.ISBN 9781596436657

Plot Summary: 

An anthology of found poetry. Collected from a bunch of different poets, this book will be sure to get you thinking about how you can find poetry in the world.

Critical Analysis: 

Found poetry is probably my most favorite form of poetry. For those of you who don’t know, found poetry is taking words, sentences, or phrases that already exist, and creating them into poems. It truly is a beautiful form.

Heard collected found poems from over 30 different poets and brought them all together in this delightful anthology.

The collection is free verse. There is no rhyming, and in fact, the flow is very disruptive. It’s not typically what one would consider “poetry” in the terms of flow and rhythm. Take, for instance, Trickery found by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. This poem is essentially a list of things.
“Magic book
magic wand
Pack of cards
escape ball…”

There’s no flow. It’s just words. Or, at least, that’s what it looks like. Found poetry is not necessarily about the words you find. It’s where you find them, how you put them together, and how they inspire you. So, yes, some poems are jutty. Some are disruptive. Some don’t have any sort of rhyme or reason. But there is still beauty in every poem.

There is no related theme throughout the book, except that they are all found poems.

Example Poem: 

“Artist’s Advice”
Found by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
in Drawing On Both Sides of the Brain by Betty Edwards

“Draw everything and anything.
Nothing is beautiful:
a few square inches of weeds
a broken glass
a landscape
a human being.
Observe your style.
Guard it.
Put pencil to paper every day.”

I love this poem. It shows that you can create a beautiful poem just on the words you find.

Enrichment Activity:

Go down to the library and wander around the stacks. Write down titles of books.

Here is an example poem I wrote while looking at book titles.

“Nowhere to Turn
Too Close to Home
Envy
Second Chance Summer
Everafter.” -Adrianna Davis