Found Art Event at Random's Coffee

“Some hairy, masculine wreath-bearing God

Does overwhelm, but is that where things end?

Proteus and Zeus with bright lightning rod

Rah, Yah, Tiamat leaving worlds to mend?

But from the love what spathed philodendron

Peek out, and up, and newer things begin.

All the vigor of the plight of life

Did not desist by Lucas' gloss

Green velvet-fire, soft forest-moss

Eroded the serrated knife.

Asserting Her, the Mother, Wife

Her Word cried out, Her Mind not lost

For all this Growth, all gods are worth the cost

To find a different purpose for the scythe.”

By Jonathan David Shepard, Poet, Founder / CEO, ArcMethod LLC

including passages from “Too Much Comes Better”

Wednesday, April 8th Midnight Garden hosted an event for national poetry month “Practices With Found Poetry” at a local coffee house in Belton, Mo “Random’s Coffee”. The poem above was decided by a unanimous vote to be the winner. With its powerful message, unique framing of found words to the extent of reverse engineering a classic poem for the construction from a librarian curated horticultural book! Those attending viewed the whole evening as a workshop of play as well as learning!

Found poetry is the process of writing poetry via found pictures, pieces of every day writing, or even small clips of things like newspapers! It simultaneously utilizes previous work as a prompt and forces the writer to look at things from a different perspective in order to create something new and beautiful.

While the 10 in attendance laughed, shared the goings on of their week, and enjoyed the local talents of Random’s Coffee owner Gregory Schrodt, there was also much to be learned from the night. Specifically, that Inspiration can be found in everyday life, and how much a change in perspective can cause shifts in interpretation. As well a classic lesson: that something average can be transformed into outstanding treasure with time, concentration, and a fun space to work! The poets also learned a surprising amount from Gregory about coffee harvesting and preparation! Education and inspiration definitely held hand in hand at the lovely local coffee shop that night. Thank you, to Random's Coffee house and Gregory Schrodt for allowing us to host this fun event in their peaceful space.

This writer encourages all who missed the entertaining evening to be sure and make sure to buy your tickets while they last next time, as I foresee only increased fun next month! Congratulations to our elected winner, Jonathan, and to everyone else who came and played in our garden of poetry: thank you for your time and contributions. May this event guide you to a space of inspiration and creativity everywhere around you, a wonderful silver lining, indeed.

Patricia L. Hartman,

CEO / Founder of Silver Lining Lotus

EIC Midnight Garden Publishing