With found poetry, you’re not limited to only newspapers, magazines, books, text messages, whatever—you can turn anything into a poem. Even avocado advice.

The goal of found poetry is to take language that already exists and reshape it into something new: creating new meaning. It’s not nearly as effective if it just repeats the message of the original.

Want to try writing your own? Pick anything you like. Once you've “found” your source material (sorry), read through it several times, paying close attention to the words and phrases that stand out to you. If you’re truly stuck, don’t worry about keeping the words in the same order and just create three columns: verbs, nouns, descriptors. Looking at these, can you create some new meaning?

I usually don’t rearrange words to create a found poem, but this clip is so short that I gave myself the latitude. (So yes, I kinda cheated this time. Please don’t hold it against me.)

You can cut the words out, or just black them out with a sharpie (which is typically called “blackout poetry”). Totally up to you.

Full text of the poem here:

You're carefully dissecting how you go.
Leave it.

Show your beautiful inside with all you're doing.
Get in touch.
Turn your shell upside-down.