Here are seventeen random lines from different poems I’ve written. The exercise is to use them to create a new poem, given certain parameters.

• You can arrange them in any order
• You can change the tense of verbs
• You can change pronouns (he to she, she to it, etc)
• You cannot insert lines between lines, but you can break a single line up across multiple line breaks

You still wear that scrappy mustache her spirit; she raises a wasp has been inside it. What prevents you are addicted to transcendence Something more poetic, like the skin The sigh sagging from your mouth. The key the city pass us by how hungry we were, to feel how happy The hour claims it’s summer unlike, to arrange and recombine in new configurations Nobody’s here again, that shadow the moon snapped shut failing to remember you who were mine. You walk on eight It lived in the back of your throat never felt so good ——-

EXQUISITELY CORPSING A SELF

You lived in the back of your throat. A wasp had been inside it, what prevents You. How hungry You were

to feel how happy never felt: so good unlike arranging and combining in new configurations. The hour

claimed it was summer, something more poetic like the skin, the sigh sagging

from your mouth, the key, the moon snapping

shut your spirit. Nobody’s here again, that shadow. You walk on eight,

failing to remember You who were yours.