Dada Poem

The Dada movement was created by Tristan Tzara. It is an art movement that led into surrealism and focuses on making art that would otherwise be seen as nonsensical. This exercise shows you that anything can be used to tell a story, and that anything can be art as long as you want it to be seen that way.

STEPS:

1. Search. Find a newspaper or print an article from the Internet.

2. Cut. Cut out each word (you can also choose to cut out each sentence or cut out a group of words or phrases as well).

2. Bag it. Once you’ve cut out all your pieces, put them all in a plastic baggie or a bowl.

3. Fishbowl. Grab one of the pieces of paper and write down what word or phrase is on it and set it aside. Continue doing this, going through all of the pieces you cut out.

4. Arrange. You can choose to write it down, or you can choose to glue it down and arrange it in any way that you like.

Example from a Dada poem I made from an article about NASA:

The icy object write that a planet

As a planet a planet event in several astronomers

Similarly sized objects from the Sun

Solar System in the dwarf planet

Fuel to the Pluto made Bridenstine went

“I’m committed to it.”

Edges of the first attracted.

Is a planet. You can larger than Pluto

Oklahoma, he said a dwarf planet

Into question in 1930 has dedicated

That was 27 percent of space

Note: I chose to cut out individual words and phrases and use both in my poem. You can see that it doesn’t really make sense when you’re just reading it straight up, but that there can be a story behind it.

5. Take it further. Take any line from the Dada poem and create a story or a poem based around that line. It can be used for inspiration or it can be used directly in the piece as well.

By Angela Vu