In her groundbreaking collection Fusion Poetry, Sarah B. Royal presents a new approach to poetic creation—one that simultaneously honors tradition and invents anew. Royal’s self-defined form, Fusion Poetry, represents a deliberate act of synthesis, merging fragments of poetic history into cohesive, original works. Rather than composing from spontaneous inspiration, Royal’s process is rooted in constraint—a practice inspired by OuLiPoian thinking, or as she calls it, its Americanized counterpart, WoPoLian style. By working within these creative limits, she constructs poetry that is not derivative but transformative, reflecting a deep understanding of both poetic history and innovation.

Most of the poems in Fusion Poetry are composed using titles borrowed from renowned poets. Through this method, Royal fuses elements of found poetry, cento, and collage poetry, yet moves beyond imitation to emphasize fusion over pastiche. Each poem becomes a dialogue across time: the voices of literary predecessors are interwoven into new patterns of meaning, their tones and themes reshaped through Royal’s distinctive creative lens. In doing so, she invites readers to rediscover the familiar in unexpected ways. The poems feel simultaneously ancient and modern, echoing the rhythms of poetic ancestry while asserting a fresh individuality.

Royal’s refusal to credit the original poets whose titles she uses further underscores the collection’s conceptual daring. Instead of revealing her sources, she offers readers a kind of literary riddle—an invitation to engage critically with the text, to trace influences and uncover connections through curiosity and intuition. This choice reflects one of the most compelling aspects of Fusion Poetry: its insistence that poetry is not static, but rather a living, evolving conversation between writers, readers, and history itself.

Beyond title-based construction, Royal’s concept of Fusion Poetry expands into a broader philosophy of poetic integration. She envisions multiple dimensions of fusion, including cross-form poetry, which combines structured forms such as sonnets or ballads with free verse or experimental techniques. Her method also embraces interdisciplinary poetry, merging verse with visual art, music, or performance, as well as cultural fusion, in which poetic traditions from different languages or cultures meet within a single work. In these ways, Fusion Poetry becomes not just a form, but a framework—a lens through which poets can explore the possibilities of blending tradition and transformation.

At its core, Royal’s work resists the idea that poetry must arise from lofty inspiration or emotional impulse. Instead, it thrives on constraint, craft, and intellectual play, demonstrating that limits can in fact generate boundless creativity. By piecing together fragments from the poetic canon, she constructs something entirely new, proving that originality does not always mean invention from nothing—it can also mean reinvention through synthesis.

Fusion Poetry stands as both a manifesto and a model for 21st-century poetic experimentation. Whether merging rigid formalism with modern voices, integrating archaic diction into contemporary settings, or uniting diverse cultural traditions, Sarah B. Royal challenges what poetry can be. Her work affirms that the poetic act is not merely expressive—it is reconstructive. In blending the old with the new, she offers readers and writers alike a renewed sense of possibility: that through fusion, poetry itself continues to evolve, expanding the boundaries of what language and imagination can achieve.