In a previous post (Surrey: A cutout poem, 2 August 2019), I described the cut-out technique of moving a window-slot in a piece of card across book or newspaper text as a way of creating new contexts and relationships between existing words, as a method of constructing found poetry.
Another technique is the collation of page headings. Headings from dictionaries are particularly fertile ground: typically, the two-word heading gives the first and last word to appear on the page, or rather the title words of the first and last main entries. What I like about these is the alliteration or similar semblance between the sounds of the two words, occurring so closely alphabetically as they do, contrasting with the absence of any rational connection. The resulting foul – framework dishes up a frantic – fricandeau of word pairings, variously absurd, profound or lyrical.
This is an ongoing project that I pick up from time to time, commonly of course when I lay hands on a new dictionary. Compiling a list or index of word pairs (to scantily – scavenge) is a very low-attention activity, best done as one might shell peas, in front of the telly or listening to music. I find making the selection unusually binary, the two words obviously either making an interesting pair or not, either in or out. The pairs are entered on a database which is shuffled from time to time into alphabetical order.
The poems are made by scanning the database for interesting connections, by theme or sound. Sometimes the word-pairs survive in their original condition, divided by a wordspace or a dash, as for example level crossing – lie-down, but it often works better to write them as they might be spoken, in the format from homewards to horizon, or between swell and sycophant.
Here are a few examples:
One
from infant to inflatable
from delinquent to demigod
from cleaner to clergyman
from chameleon to chaperon
from marathon runner to Martian
from peasant to pedestrian
from midwife to militiaman
from cemetery to centrefold
Two
between beastly and bebop
between cool and country
between dead beat and decadent
between drumbeat and dub
between jargon and jazz
between jukebox and junk
between harmony and havoc
between rock and roll
Three
fisk to flag
flag to flap
flake to flight
flare to flaw
flaught to fleet
fleet to flight
flight to float
float to flop
flock to fly
flown to flute
Four
between crack and crime
between blood and blot
between borstal and bottle
between shiner and shocking
between shot and shout
between smack and smerk
between threat and throw
between confession and confusion
Five
lean to left
picket to placard
revenge to rich
downing street to drain
secretly to sell-off
whitehall to whole
insouciance to institute
fallacious to fancy