A found poem is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text, thus imparting new meaning. Found poems are often made from existing texts such as newspaper articles, street signs, speeches, letters, or even other poems. The words of the poem remain as they were found, with few additions or omissions, and decisions of form, such as where to break a line, are left to the poet. Found poetry is similar to the visual art of "appropriation" in which two- and three-dimensional art is created from recycled items, giving ordinary/commercial things new meaning when put within a new context in unexpected combinations or juxtapositions.

Found poetry can be used as a teaching strategy to have students review material and synthesize their learning. To create found poems, students must choose language that is particularly meaningful or interesting to them and organize the language around a theme or message. Creating found poetry can be a fun challenge, and there are different types of found poetry that one can try, such as free form excerpting and remixing, erasure, cento, and cut-up. Examples of found poems can be seen in the work of Blaise Cendrars, David Antin, and Charles Reznikoff.