Verbatim found poetry is an intriguing collection of found poems. Poems found in ordinary, and not so ordinary places. Submit yours.
Hollow man;
You’re over dead dreams—
Hopeless.
Picture perfect, pathetic.
Flesh, bone and weakness.
Five months?
Moments in oblivion.
Feed them to the pigs.
I watched a cold day in Hell:
Emotional breakdown,
Begin breaking point,
Romance is dead.
From song titles by the band Parkway Drive. Submitted by Elizabeth.
your silence
has sounded
louder
than the jabber
of politics
and the clang
of military power;
out of deep darkness
your little lamp has
shone
across the planet;
your stillness
has moved the world.
Taken from the oration given in honour of Aung San Suu Kyi when she received an honorary doctorate in Oxford, 20 June 2012. Submitted by Ailsa Holland.
So it’s perfectly
possible to live
a broadly satisfying life
all on your own, communing
with high art, being a lonely
heroic figure that walks
that long, dramatic path to
the piano centre stage.
This all works fine
as long as you cling
to the notion that the music
you’re playing is written
by dead, distant gods.
On the other hand, it all
blows apart when you start
integrating living composers,
as all the fixed points get swept
away; all composers take
on a human face, the church-like reverence
disappears, and suddenly audiences
become a collection of individuals
who may or may not
like what you’re doing. Promoters
start getting nervous, so you,
the performer,
have to start communicating
fast. That’s why.
From An Interview with Joanna MacGregor on SoundCircus. Submitted by Andrew Bailey.
Try to avoid your movements
in long lonely road after sunset,
which approaches the beach
where there is a poor light.
Item 13 of a photocopied ‘Advice to tourists’ sheet, handed out upon arriving at Kudle Beach, Gokarna, India. Submitted by John K.
When I first drove
the Carlisle/ Wiltshire commute,
I’d do it southbound non-stop.
It was four hours or so
and I was keen to get home.
But, when they started the road-works,
it drew out and I started making stops:
two usually (Tebay and one other).
Some mornings I’d leave Swindon at 4AM
and head north for a 9AM meeting.
I have not been south of Manchester since July.
An email from a friend, Shaunette, sent in June 2011. Submitted by Martin.
cats
tend to exist in
your peripheral
vision
and after a while
you move around the house
in a manner that
accommodates
the expectation of their
presence,
waiting
to trip you up
on the stairs
or suddenly
emerge
from nowhere
and start slow-walking
in front of you
as you try
to get
from room to
room.
(From My Life as a Cat Undertaker. Submitted by Ailsa Holland)
She kept the habit of having sliced ginseng in her mouth
ate pearl powder, eight-treasure ointment and flower food
Peanuts, soybeans and red dates…
‘We are not preparing for cooking porridge
but for making a delicate imperial pastry
a secret breast-enlarging recipe of Empress Dowager Cixi.’
Taken from an article on the Cultural China website. Submitted by Grace Andreacchi.
The other night,
as I was coming home in the dark,
I saw a strange ungainly thing in front of me;
then when I drew closer I saw that it was
a man giving a piggy-back to a woman.
They lurched a little…
I overtook them and left them
piggy-backing in the country lane.
The diary entry of Denton Welch, 22 October 1943, from The Faber Book of Diaries, ed. Simon Brett (London, 1987). Submitted by Neal.
How to play with the nude doll properly:
Pose it, bend and move its body without force
Hold it gently and move the limbs in their sockets
carefully in the direction of the slits
To clean it, wipe with water or any household cleaning agent
Braid, brush, wash or even dye its hair
Dress and undress it carefully
Avoid:
Dropping the doll
Submerging the doll in water
Forcing the joints to move in the way they were not intended
Pulling the joints out of their sockets – it loosens spring tension
Handling it roughly
Taking the doll apart
I cannot ship you new body parts
From the repairs page of the Enchanted Doll website. Submitted by Grace Andreacchi.
Hello, gentleman!
I will be honest with you
I tell that I can’t see a future
that does not include you.
I feel great inspiration every time
when I see you I feel scared
that your heart isn’t single
that you won’t want to build
romantic relations with me.
But from other hand,
I try to forget about all fears
to believe that you are the man of my dream
that I am a woman beyond your dreams.
It was not the easy step for me
to write to you this letter.
I didn’t used to get acquainted with strangers
especially through the internet.
But I am very disappointed into real life
where I can’t meet a good man and
I can’t build love and family.
I decided to change
something in my life
and this first change is
my letter to you.
you won’t stay cold
you will be touched with
my sincere and romantic letter.
I am always ready to write
to you a reply to continue
our romantic acquaintance.
Taken from a spam email. Submitted by Karen Greenbaum-Maya.
Verbatim Poetry 
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