Twitter Poems is something that I made up and I want you to play with me.  It’s an experiment in using the medium of social media to create art that engages the voices, opinions, and stories of your community.

Here’s how you create a Twitter Poem:

1. Make sure you have a Twitter account.
2. The the “Search”  field, type in the name of a person or topic that you are interested in exploring through your poem.  My very first Twitter Poem was based on the search “Hurricane Sandy.”
3. Select and Copy the first 10 tweets that come up in your feed.  Paste them unto a blank piece of paper.  I like to use a new note in Evernote.

   

4. Underline at least 1 word or phrase from every tweet that speaks to you in anyway – it could be funny, or odd, or moving, or whatever.  If it speaks to you, it’s good.
5. Now, create a poem from the words or phrases you used.  This is the key.  Use every one of the underlined phrases. And limit yourself to ONLY these words and phrases.  Repetition is okay, but try not to add full words or phrases that did not exist in the tweets.  This is part of the challenge and part of the fun.  Creativity is all about limits.
6. Move the words and phrases around on the page until you like how it sounds…how it looks…how it feels.  There is no wrong answer.  This is your poem.  Have fun playing with it.
7. Post the poem to your blog  and give credit to the folks who helped you write your poem by sharing links to their Twitter profiles.  This way, we are continuing to strengthen our community as we make art. Adding a pic is great too.  Pics always come up in the searches so you may want to add it to your post.  Again, be sure to give the person who posted it credit.

Oh, and P.S. – Make sure it share your poems with me @lynnjohnson.  I would love to read it!