Poetry Friday: Found Poem Assignment

The pen is a mighty weapon, according to the old saying.To help kick off inauguration week in the spirit of activism, poets and authors all over the U.S. are performing at WRITERS RESIST events. You can read about the movement at PEN America. Writers Resist has its own website with a listing of readings across the nation.I will be representing 100 Thousand Poets for Change at the Baltimore City Writers Resist reading. Information about the event is here.After last week's poetry exercise with a bit of Thoreau, I had a feeling that our President-Elect's words would make some revealing poems. Yesterday, I posted a political poetry assignment on Facebook. Here it is:I challenge everyone to create a cross-out or found poem out of Trump's recent press conference. Here is a link to the transcript.Please post your poem -- text or picture -- in the comments or at your own blog. Thanks to Amy Ludwig Vanderwater and Diane Mayr, who shared their poems on Facebook.

For my response, I was interested in the rhythm of Trump's repetitious, overlapping phrases. I went through the transcript and highlighted sentences driven by "I." Here is my own response to the prompt. Though these phrases lack context, I did not rewrite or re-order any of Trump's words.I MessagesTrump Press Conference Found Poemby Laura Shovan

I think we probably maybe won,I do have to say that and I must say that.I’ve just gone up a notch.As to what I think of you?OK, I guess you could say.And I will say, I said,that I will be the greatest.And I mean that, I really –I think you’ll be very impressed.I tell this to people all the time,and I told many people.I have no dealings.I have no deals that could happen.And I have no loans.I have very, very little debt.I have assets. I have very little debt.I have very low debt. But I have no loans.And I thought that was important.I certified that. So I have no deals.I have no loans. And I have no dealings.I just don’t want to.Because I’m president.I didn’t know about that, but it’s a nice thing.I have something that others don’t have.I understand they want a presidentto run the country.I would be able to do that if I wanted to.I’d do a very good job.I think it’s one of the reasons I got elected.I think the people of this countrydid not want to see what was happening.I think it was disgraceful.And I say that, I think it’s a disgracethat information was false and fake.I think they’re going to suffer the consequences.I guess the advantage I have isthat I can speak.And I think it’s very unfair.