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Since Harvard University has a course on Taylor Swift in its catalogue, I thought, “What the heck, maybe I could use Swift as a teaching tool.” During class, we discussed the Found poem. And our exercise that day was to create a ‘Found’ poem based on Taylor Swift’s recent album release.

So, I found a video that has Swift singing one of her songs, as a typewriter types out the lyrics. I asked the students to take the lyrics that they wrote in their notebooks, and either rearrange them into a poem, or take a line that strikes them, and make their own poem.

Some pretty good stuff came out of the exercise. We also had an interesting discussion about if Swift was truly a poet, not just a songwriter.  The students felt that her lyrics wouldn’t make it to the poem stage – they are dependent on her music to bring them to life.

I talked with them about the importance of having a poem work on the “stage” and on the “page.” Swift herself admits in her song that she is no Dylan Thomas or Patti Smith – and writes that she and her ex “are modern-day idiots.”

Swift, in my opinion, is hardly an idiot, but a greatly talented performer. However, she ain’t a poet. Maybe that’s why she is tortured.