Dadaism was the monkeywrench that threw off the formalist art world. This anti-art movement pioneered visual and auditory collages the way we know them now. It has also given writers a new way of coming up with ideas.

One is Tristan Tzara’s method of making a Dadaist poem, which is practically a collage of words. The recipe goes as such: Grab a newspaper. Cut out an article that’s as long as the poem you plan to have. Cut this article down to separate words. Put the words in a bag and shake gently. Take out the scraps and lay out in the order which you got them from the bag. Copy them out. What you have now is an insta-poem fit for our post-modern times.

Here’s my take. This is an article from a local magazine. Since the print was terribly small, I just sliced the paragraph by line:

I worked on some more on my lovely weird creature. Here’s the poem with a bit of polish:

Building Blocks

Right now, a 10-building cluster on Shanghai Street:
A food paradise, replaced.
“You are a Barry,” one calls among
Residents, flats, a hub where
Experts are divided. Plans. Dr. Lee.
Areas in redevelopment. Flower shops,
A popular food street, menus translated from Chinese.
Occupants at the Mong Kok flower market sit.
At the other Prince Edward Road: Shanghai’s
Art schools and film production houses. But
I will stay. It’s anyone’s guess as to what might happen.
On the street, the plumbers and appliances stores kick.
Why? Because the Authority has already decided
On Prince Edward Road West’s
Construction and home appliance shops – 10 buildings.

You may want to try cutting out and mixing up the headlines or the print ads, if you wish. Sometimes, all you might need is just one word to get a poem going. I keep a box of cut-up words and build poems from mixing them up. Another way to start out a poem is through other artwork. Either way, there are lots of methods to face a blank page and come up with a fresh metaphor.