Grand Theft Poetry Experiment

The idea behind this experiment is that you should be able to construct a coherent - doesn't suggest good - poem out of the lines that have been chosen completely bat random.

I would go a bit further and say that you need to extract a subject of sorts first.  So, looking through the blocks I notice a number of things. In the words tempest, howl, cold, mist, dipping, twirling, gurgling, floods, black and waste - it is possible to imagine being able to construct a poem about the current floods that are effecting large swathes of the UK at the moment. The theme could be how bad they are and what suffering is being endured by the people most affected by them.

The farmer strolled
across the sleeping green between
the twelve tons like mist in a valley,
trying to reach his destination
hiding behind  thick set ash-trees
restlessly in the flood's black waste.
His stick twirling in his hand, a withered spray
blacker upon the looming gurgling flood
where arose the howl of weakened stock
dark lowers the tempest overhead
cries in the cold, himself no friend.

This is really difficult. I have had to make a few subtle changes to make it flow or at least make some grammatical sense. But perhaps the purpose of this exercise has already been met - I had no desire to write a poem about the floods and yet quickly saw a word theme emerging through the lines I had chosen. The subject then would be the floods and the theme would choose itself - some of the misery that flooding houses and farms in the country in particular would create.

Would I do this experiment again? Yes I would. If only to see if subject and theme suggested itself again. The shifting around of lines is good fun if difficult. But if I bend the rules a bit I'm sure I can always mold the words into a coherent whole. Next time something else will pop up perhaps.

There are other advantages to this practice such as it providing of an opportunity to draw up more words that can be used to poetic effect. It's another version of reading poetry to make yourself either a or a better poet.