Learned On Amazon

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Step 1: Pick a “language field” instead of a topic
Don’t start with “I want to write about grief” or “about winter.”
Start with a language field: a kind of discourse you’ll steal from and disrupt.

Examples:
Technical: user manuals, math proofs, weather reports
Bureaucratic: legal disclaimers, policy documents, insurance forms
Everyday scripted: customer service scripts, recipes, FAQ pages
Myth/folklore: spells, omens, bestiaries, saints’ lives
Your task:
Pick one language field. Name it in a short line like:

I’ll work with: airline safety instructions.

Step 2: Gather raw language, not “inspiration”
Instead of brainstorming feelings, collect phrases.
Skim 1–3 real-world documents from your chosen field.
Copy out 15–30 short fragments that catch your eye.
Guidelines for fragments:
Keep them short: 2–8 words each.
Don’t fix the grammar. Take them as-is.
Include things that feel:
overly technical
oddly flat
unintentionally emotional
rhythmic or chant-like
Example (from a recipe field):

“preheat until shimmering”
“yield: serves four”
“discard any remaining mixture”
“stir constantly to avoid burning”

Step 3: Break the expected syntax
Now you start making the text feel less like its source discourse and more like a field of language.
Take your fragments and:
Lineate them (one per line, or doubled up):

preheat until shimmering
discard any remaining mixture

Start recombining by cutting and splicing:

preheat any remaining mixture
discard until shimmering

Remove connectors (“and,” “the,” “that”) to make jumps sharper.
Aim for 10–20 lines of these first mutations.

Step 4: Introduce a second, clashing language field
Language poetry loves friction.

Choose a second field that clashes with the first.
If first is technical, second might be devotional.
If first is bureaucratic, second might be fairy tale.

Collect 10–20 short fragments from the second field.
Interweave them with your first set of lines.

Example (recipe + medical consent):
preheat until shimmering
you may withdraw consent at any time
discard any remaining mixture
side effects include, but are not limited to

Don’t worry about sense; worry about texture and collision.

Step 5: Disrupt the “I” and obvious narrative
If you feel an “I” creeping in (“I stir,” “I sign,” “I decide”), you can:
Replace “I” with a role: “the patient,” “the witness,” “the instrument.”
Or drop the subject entirely: “stir until blamed,” “signed without visible hand.”
Or keep “I” but strip it of biography (“I, undersigned mixture”).

Goal: no stable, confessional voice that explains everything. The speaker is a function, not a character.

Step 6: Create patterns of repetition and variation
Now give the poem some underlying system or engine.
Pick one element to repeat, then keep modulating it:
A phrase: “until shimmering”
A structure: “if X, then Y”
A word: “consent,” “error,” “saint,” “mixture”

Example patterning:
until shimmering, you may withdraw
until shimmering, mixture signs itself
until shimmering, no side effects recorded
This creates a sense of logic without offering a neat story.

Step 7: Let gaps and jumps do the emotional work
Instead of stating the “aboutness,” let the juxtaposition hint at it.
Ask yourself quietly (but don’t write this in the poem):
What power structure is implied here?
Who is being controlled, processed, measured?
Where does the language sound almost like prayer, or threat, or apology?

Then nudge the lines so the implied stakes sharpen, without explanation:
discard any remaining witness

preheat until shimmering consent
side effects include, but are not believed

The feelings live in the fault lines between discourses.

Step 8: Arrange the page as a field
Now step back and think about spatial form.
You can:

Keep it columnar (left-aligned lines), but use white space and stanza breaks to create sections.
Or scatter some phrases on the line with extra spaces:

preheat any remaining witness
discard until shimmering consent

Or stack repeated phrases to make visual emphasis:

side effects include
side effects include
side effects include, but are not recorded

Choose 2–4 small spatial moves and repeat them; don’t overcomplicate.

Step 9: Revise for strangeness and pressure, not clarity
Read your draft aloud.
On each pass, ask:

Where is it too clear, too neat?
Make those places twist once. Swap a key noun/verb with one from the opposing language field.
Where is it mushy or generic (“thing,” “stuff,” “people”)?
Replace those with sharper, field-specific terms.

Preserve:
productive ambiguity
fractured logic
vivid, precise diction

Cut:
explaining lines
moral-of-the-story lines
any line that could be a workshop “fix” in a mainstream lyric.

Step 10: Optional constraint to sharpen the whole
If you want it tighter, add one constraint and revise to fit:
Sound: every line must contain at least one internal echo (alliteration, assonance).
Form: each stanza must have exactly 3 lines; each line 3–7 words.
Lexicon: no adjectives from everyday feeling (no “sad,” “happy,” “lonely”); only structural ones (“residual,” “interim,” “incomplete”).

Constraints force the language to become more decided and less default.

A mini-template you can literally follow right now
Choose two fields.

Example: weather advisories + breakup text messages.
Gather 20 fragments from each field.
Make a 30-line poem where:
every line uses at least one word from each field, and
every fifth line repeats a slightly altered version of an earlier line.
Erase any line that sounds like a straightforward explanation.
Adjust spacing and repetition until the page feels like a system under strain.

Below is my Language Poem

Learned On Amazon

Need a gift? Tina Darragh Rufus among neighbors.
Need a gift? Holiday gifts staple bound medical care.
Need a gift? Mass transit deals currently unavailable
Need a gift? Basics, books, A(Gain)2St Odds
keep searching.
Need a gift? Modernism service logics buy principles.
Need a gift? Again Non-linear watch models available.
Need a gift? Prime options are— Deliver Striking Resemblance.
Need a gift? New in very good condition.
Trending Scuffed.
Need a gift? Best colour loss, More bumped memberships.
Need a gift? Rubbed communities binding sound books.
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