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Lorraine O’Grady

Here's a short feature in the Yale Review from a few years back. It concerns the work of the conceptual artist/critic/essayist Lorraine O'Grady, who died last week at the age of 90. Eugenia Bell writes,

"Her 1977 work, Cutting Out the New York Times, consists of twenty-six poems made from cut up Sunday editions of the newspaper. Forty years later, she has reimagined and reshaped the original works into twenty-six “haiku diptychs” in Cutting Out COTNYT."

Because of copyright issues, I'm not going to include any images of O'Grady's haiku diptychs, but you can see them at the Yale Review's website, linked above. These pieces and their predecessors look like good mentor poems to use in creating one's own work. Y'all know I can't resist a good process experiment, so my effort is below.

The Poetry Friday roundup for December 20th is at Jone Rush MacCulloch's blog.

Hat tips: Yale Review Bluesky account; ARTNews obituary

 

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"Weather Report" ©Susan Thomsen, 2024

Source: The New York Times, Dec. 15, 2024

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  1. Laura Purdie Salas Avatar
    Laura Purdie Salas

    I love your sharing of mentor texts and processes, Susan. Thank you!

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  2. Susan T. Avatar
    Susan T.

    Thanks, Laura! I’m going to continue this weekend with Sunday’s paper. I wonder what I’ll find.

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  3. Tabatha Avatar
    Tabatha

    I find that kind of found poem to be incredibly difficult to make! Well done and thanks for the O’Grady introduction.

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  4. Susan T. Avatar
    Susan T.

    Thanks, Tabatha! I am looking forward to reading more about Lorraine O’Grady, whose work is new to me.

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  5. Tracey Kiff-Judson Avatar
    Tracey Kiff-Judson

    Susan, Weather Report is such a clever and timely poem! Thank you for sharing.

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  6. Carol Varsalona Avatar
    Carol Varsalona

    Susan, so sorry that I added Tracey’s name to my comment above. I could not delete and start again.

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  7. Mary Lee Avatar
    Mary Lee

    You worked magic with NYT bits! Well played!
    The only newspaper I get in physical form is the weekly rag from my tiny hometown on the prairie in eastern Colorado. Not sure what poetry I might find there, but I’m inspired to try! Stay tuned!

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  8. Jone Rush MacCulloch Avatar
    Jone Rush MacCulloch

    Thanks for introducing us to Lorraine O’ Grady. I enjoyed reading your Weather report. I don’t get a physical paper any longer but I might have to figure out something.

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  9. Susan T. Avatar
    Susan T.

    Tracey, thanks! I enjoyed working on the poem.
    Carol, oops, I deleted that comment too soon. I’m so sorry. My bad, for sure. I was going to say, “No worries. I deleted it.” but now I get that you meant it for me! I need more coffee.
    Mary Lee, thank you. You are going to find GOLD in your hometown paper, I feel sure of it.
    Jone, you’re welcome. You could definitely cut and paste from an online paper!

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  10. Margaret Simon Avatar
    Margaret Simon

    What a lovely response poem. I especially like “mystery grows”. This form of found poetry is fun and challenging. I should do this with my students.

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  11. Irene Latham Avatar
    Irene Latham

    Well done! Anytime a mystery can grow is a good time! I LOVE playing with found poetry. It’s just FUN!

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  12. Michelle Kogan Avatar
    Michelle Kogan

    Great post Susan! Love your poem, and I could hear a drum beat after “grows!” And thanks for sharing the link to Bell’s poems too! 😊

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  13. Susan T. Avatar
    Susan T.

    Margaret, thanks! I bet your students would have fun with this.
    Amen to the mystery growing, Irene. And, yep, FUN is the word.
    Thanks, Michelle. For sure a beat after “Grows!”

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