For her Out of Standard challenge over at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads, our tricky friend Izy has come up with her own twist on a style I never knew existed: erasure poetry.
Wikipedia says an erasure poem is created by erasing words from an existing text and framing the result on the page as a poem. The results can be allowed to stand in place, or they can be arranged into lines and/or stanzas.
Our dear Izy, however, specifies “Go to your local news source, be it a newspaper or website and write an erasure poem from a local news story which posted today. Your erasure poem may be as long or short as you would like, but you must adhere to the following rules
- You cannot add text to your poem. All lines must already exist within the news story.
- You cannot change the order of the words or lines. They must appear in the same order which they appeared in the story.”
So, I added a title, but otherwise I adhered like glue to Rule #1 and Rule #2, although I have to say this isn’t from my present local news source, it is from the newspaper with which I grew up, the “Daily Courier” in Kelowna, British Columbia. It is (okay, was) local Kelowna news when it happened, but it did not appear in print today. I did find the story online today, however. It was written last fall by Don Plant. Thanks, Don Plant, whoever you are!
Oh, and the most interesting thing about the Kelowna Daily Courier...fellow Real Toads member Sherry and I both wrote for the Courier in the 1960s, and we're now online buddies, but we still haven't met one another. Yet.
If you see me, call the cops!
 |
| Kelowna Courier photo |
Santa statue stolen
from a chocolate shop
metre-high
chocolate-filled
12-kilogram figurine
to donate
to SPCA
“they stole from a charity
it was a lousy thing to do”
Selected by Kay Davies, February 12, 2014
16 comments:
I had to zip over the daily courier, just to take a peek! How fun, thanks for sharing with us today Kay! I really like the pacing of your erasure poem, it flowed nicely, clever cutting, you!!! Viva la
that'll get ya on the naughty list for sure
Hi Kay ~~ This was a fun write wasn't it. If the original story is kept, and you did a good job at that, it reminds me of writing the old fashioned telegram. Probably like Twits now for Tweeter.
I changed the story for a new one. And took my title from the article.
..
dang, that IS a lousy thing to do! ~
that is a lousy thing to do! I will keep my eyes open though and give a call should I see him!
Hari OM
this was delightful and am smiling still... this method of poetry intrigues me; another challenge!! YAM xx
Stealing from a charity IS a lousy thing to do!
Oh what a cool poem! and what a horrible thief! Hope he got a tummy-ache! Bad karma!
yes, Lynette and I are chatting about how we will meet on one of your trips to White Rock!
Am drooling now with the thought of a meter high chocolate Santa! Yum!
Trying to imagine what happened to this conspicuous chocolate Santa. perhaps it will it be uncovered somewhere still in a deep freeze. I hope so. Otherwise, I would like to imagine that some children somewhere were delighted by it.
Oh, very clever, Kay...you did a great job! I'm going to have to try this now.
I just emailed Sherry yesterday and said again how we should try to fit in a visit with you and Maria...it's time for afternoon tea again. Hopefully, one day soon.
Have yourself a wonderful weekend...:)
… very pathetic - stealing from a charity. I think the tone you set is perfect!
Bittersweet and someone deserves to get cavities after this episode~
Sad to steal from a charity! Well Done Kay
Shame on a thief who would take from a charity. Loved your poem.
I'll bet most of the evidence is long gone. Just look for the wrapping paper you cops.
What fun!
I used to teach kids to write poems this way.Write some prose, erase all but the important words.
I so miss teaching.
(ツ) from Cottage Country Ontario , ON!
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