UNIVERSAL SCHOLASTIC ACADEME
Sinisian East, Lemery, Batangas
Creative Writing
MODULE 5 : EXPERIMENTAL TEXTS (Week 5)
I. INTRODUCTION
Apart from the traditional poetry forms, there are also experimental texts developed. This lesson will give
you an idea on some of these experimental texts. This will showcase poems written by poets.
II. OBJECTIVES
At the end of the module, you are expected to:
Enumerate various experimental text;
Discuss the different types of experimental texts; and
Appreciate the poems under experimental texts.
III. DISCUSSION
EXPERIMENTAL POETRY
Experimentation is one aspect of all Modernist and Postmodernist poetry, but experimental poetry makes a
special point of innovation, sometimes in the belief that current poetry is stereotyped and inadequate, but more
often for its own sake. Experimentation in the arts is nothing like its counterpart in science, however, and there
are no theories to correspond with observations, fit in with other theories, or broadly make sense. Even such
concepts as foregrounding and defamiliarization, basic to much literary theorizing, are more taken as articles of
faith than properly established. Visual poetry can be intriguing and pleasing, but it is not poetry as commonly
understood by the term, and has therefore to be judged on different grounds, most commonly those of the
graphic arts, which it increasingly resembles.
TYPOGRAPHY
Concrete Poetry/ Shape Poetry
Concrete poetry is a poem whose layout or typography implies the subject of the poem.
Swan and Shadow
John Hollander
Genre-crossing Text
Prose Poem
The prose poem is a kind of poetry that is written in paragraphs which contains language play, images, and
with instances of poetic meter.
Performance Poetry/ Spoken – Word Poetry
Performance or Spoken-word poetry’s significant characteristics is that it is being recited in front of the
audience in public spaces. It uses vernacular language and appealing oral elements like music, recordings, and
other elements of signification.
Ten (10) Experimental Poetry Writing Techniques
Automatic writing
Try to write without thinking. Don’t worry about whether the results will be good or not. Don’t even
consciously try to impose a form (stanzas and lines vs. sentences and paragraphs) on your words while you’re
writing them. Just write, and do it swiftly. You’ll find that much of what you produce with this method will be
garbage, but there will undoubtedly be a few lines that you can edit into something better, or reuse in other
poems. Who knows, you may even find a fully-formed poem hidden in the detritus. Plus, not only is this a good
way to produce interesting materiel, but it also increases your agility when it comes to writing in general.
Write without writing
Speak the poem to yourself as you're putting it together, and only write it down once the whole thing’s
done (or, if your short-term memory’s not up to snuff, once every stanza or every line is done). By doing this,
you’ll keep the sounds of the poem at the forefront of your mind. The goal is not necessarily to find a pattern in
the sounds, but merely to find sounds that are satisfying in their own particular way. It’s easier, too, to
recognize when a line is awkward or false when you’re speaking it aloud.
False translations
Choose a poem written in a language you don’t know, and try to translate it into English as best you can. It
helps if you’re at least a little familiar with the language you are translating from. For example, I know about
twenty French words, and I can guess what many of the cognates are. Because of this, it’s a language I can
attempt to translate from without it being too easy or too difficult. Play around with how closely you stick to the
poem you’re translating. Don’t be too obsessed with trying to get it exactly right word for word, but also stay
within certain limitations. Like the automatic writing technique, this can either produce full poems, or lines and
phrases that you might want to borrow for other poems.
Paraphrase your own poems
First, write a poem while paying as much attention to its sound and as little attention to its sense as
possible. This can take the form of a rhyming poem with a ton of assonance and consonance, or it can be full of
densely packed exuberant nonsense that just sounds vaguely poetic. Next, try to paraphrase that poem as best
you can into a new poem. The idea is to translate it from obscure English into sensible English. While doing
this, it’s best to try to impose a certain amount of unity to the final product. If it’s too difficult to shape it into a
coherent narrative, try to at least create a coherent mood or a series of images with something in common.
Look to other forms of writing for inspiration
There are so many different types of writing to be inspired by: letters, pop quizzes, text conversations,
blog posts, stage-plays, lists of bullet-pointed notes, advertisements, memes, tweets, etc. Even within each of
these categories, there are countless sub-categories. From these types of writing, you can steal whatever
elements you so choose. For example, you can write a poem in which the stanzas vaguely resemble a Twitter
feed without blatantly telling the reader that you’re doing this. Or you can write a poem that more obviously
mimics a Twitter feed. The choice is up to you.
Set a timer
Give yourself a number of lines you must write, and a specific time frame (five, ten, thirty minutes — or
more, depending on the poem’s length) in which you need to complete the poem. This will force you to make
bold choices, and it will encourage you to go with your instincts. It will also keep you from overworking a
poem, which can drain it of its crucial spontaneous energy.
Transcribe cacophony
Simultaneously listen to several videos or audio clips of people talking. From that cacophony, try to
transcribe it all in real time as best you can. This is an impossible task, but that’s the point. It may help if, as
you’re transcribing, you try to find some sense in the overlapping voices. Or, once the transcription is done, you
can heavily edit it to find any sense embedded in it.
The DJ method
Open a bunch of books to random pages, and lay them out around you like they’re records on a DJ’s
turntable. Then start writing a poem, but glance at a word or phrase in one of the books every so often, and try
to incorporate it into your poem on the fly. The purpose of this is to keep your writing from being predictable
and monotonous. With the introduction of this new word or phrase, you’ll have to take the poem in a
completely new and unexpected direction in order to assimilate it.
Copy the rhythms of a preexisting free-verse poem
It’s easier to borrow standard iambic meters from other poems, but that also makes it easier to slack off
while doing so. By trying to exactly follow the rhythms of a preexisting free-verse poem, you have to be
extremely conscious of what words you’re choosing, and how you’re going to fit them together. This will keep
you focused entirely on writing, and will keep you from being distracted during composition.
Moodboards
Visual artists and designers often make moldboards to help them hone in on a particular aesthetic, but
they’re just as suitable for poets. You can choose to either make a moodboard of the specific images that you
want to capture in a poem, or you can use it to envision the general “vibe” of what you want to write.
IV. REFERENCES
Buhisan, A. & Sayseng A. (2016). Creative Writing. Pasay City: JFS Publishing Services
Sheers, S. (2020). 10 “Experimental PoetryWriting Techniques.” Sam Sheers Medium. Retrieved
from [Link]
Prepared by:
Mr. CHARLIEMAR S. AGUELO
SHS Instructor
UNIVERSAL SCHOLASTIC ACADEME
Sinisian East, Lemery, Batangas
Name: Score:
Section:
Creative Writing
Activity Sheet
Module 5
Task 1
Write a concrete poetry. (15 points)
Task 2
Write a spoken-word poem. (15 points)
