It’s a word printed onto a magnet.

The idea is based on the ”cut-up technique” pioneered by surrealist poets such as William S. Burroughs, Tristan Tzara and Brion Gysin. They would cut up words from magazines, novels and newspapers, mix them up, and put them together at random.  The point was to break free from the tyranny of expectation and encounter words fresh! New! Random and out of context.

Here are some fun, do it yourself cut-up links.

One day, a man who was into the cut-up technique cut up a bunch of words and tried to compose poems with them.  But there was a big problem with this.  He had allergies.  Every time he got a good poem going, he would sneeze and all the words would go flying.  Frustrated, he came up with the brilliant idea of sticking the words onto magnets, and that’s how Magnetic Poetry™ was born.

Since then, English speakers have been playing with dozens of variations of magnetic word kits. We here at ajabanzabAn were inspired to make Persian-English kits when we saw some Spanish-English kits.

As the smallest unit of language, each word is a take off point into a universe of connections and meaning and possibilities. Through play with a kit like this, your mind, your thoughts and your universe will expand.

Words are the building blocks of sentences. They can be combined and re-combined in an almost infinite number of ways.

We take words for granted when we read or talk. Sometimes just by looking at the word in a sea of randomness, we can discover it anew.

For those who are learning Persian, the word is a good place to start because they are in-between letters and sentences.

Holding a magnet word in your hand changes your relationship to words. It lets you own them, feel their flexibility, play with them.

I think there are already magnetic alphabets out there. In any case, we here at ajabanzabAn are working on a totally cool alphabet game. If you would like to be put on our mailing list and informed when the product is ready, please contact us.

For more about the alphabet, visit our alphabet section.

When you go to Iran, you can buy books of poetry and lots of poems to hang up around your house, and that’s all very nice. But the purpose of the word magnets is to be interactive and to encourage you to write your own poetry, not to be a passive observer of other people’s poetry.

It’s true that Persian poetry is amazing. We just worry that sometimes our fellow Iranians are intimidated by it, and so avoid reading and writing. To combat that, we encourage play! Anarchy! Crazy compositions with words! (You can also do serious stuff. extiAr dArid).

Like all small things, the magnets are a choking hazard, so keep them out of reach of children.

Oh.  You meant rules of play?

The first rule of Persian-English Magnetic Word Play is: There are no rules. If you want, you can take the sheets of magnets out of the box and use them as drink coasters. If you want, you can break apart the sheets and use the magnet pieces! You can ignore the words on the magnets and use them to make abstract patterns. You can actually use the words to make phrases and sentences! They can be very serious, grammatical sentences. They can be silly, random word art! The choice is yours. These words are your toys. You own them. They are smaller than you. Check inside for some tips and notes, but remember, there are no rules and you can do no wrong.

Oh, you just wanted some grammar rules? Click here.

Without preconceived notions, anyone can draw out words that resonate with them and put them together into phrases that end up being poetic, whimsical, humorous, profound, random, practical or just plain silly. Experiment and play often breeds creativity. Check out our notes on creativity.

Now if you want more specific tips on how to get started, try this:

* Spread the words out over the fridge (or other play space)
* Look the words over. Search. Scan.
* Notice that you are drawn to certain words. They stand out for you. Resonate with you. Provoke you.
* Pull those words aside. Put them together. This is the start of your composition.
* Look for other words and grammar units, if needed, to complete the thought. (See section on Grammar for tips)
* Don’t forget, you can also make up new words out of the words you have by combining words, using suffixes, prefixes, and just random word-sewing.
* But most of all, relax and make any association you feel like! Logical, illogical, it’s OK. Experiment! Play!

Well, if you’re musically inclined, some of the strange phrases you stick together might be the start of a fabulous song. Allegedly David Bowie uses the cut-up technique for song writing, and Madonna uses those English Magnetic word kits.

Read our ”Heritage Language” section for the complete answer to this. Did you know that in America, on average, an immigrant populations loses its heritage language (the language of the country of origin) within 3 generations? That is, unless they take strong steps to intervene.

Language fluency requires tons of repetition and exposure. You need to see words, experience their use in different contexts, over and over for them to become a natural part of your consciousness.

Subconscious word recognition is the goal of literacy. You become a good reader when your brain can identify a word, instantly, subconsciously, without you having to analyze it. For more information on this phenomenon (and the amazing human brain) read our ”Whole Word Recognition” section.

Before you get to whole word recognition, you need to learn the alphabet and sounds that correspond to each letter and group of letters. In other words, you need to learn phonics. Our magnets assume you already know how to read English.  In other words, if you’re an older kid or adult that can read English, the transliteration on the back is a very helpful phonics awareness tool that will help you sound out the word and learn the letters.

Repeated exposure will get your mind to start mapping and recognizing patterns in the letters. Now you’re closer to the whole word recognition part. According to literature on phonics, it takes an average of 38 encounters with a new word before the brain learns to recognize it on sight. This may seem like a lot, but if you keep the magnets out in an exposed place (like on the refrigerator, or other prominent place) you will achieve this number of exposures quickly and painlessly, all while having random, silly fun with a bunch of word magnets. 

The best way for language to thrive is if it’s spoken. It needs to live and breathe and exercise. Use it or lose it. The way magnets help here is that they get you out of a rut. In the typical Iranian-American home, the use of Persian language starts to erode and gets limited to certain types of conversations, pleasantries, what do you want for dinner, and so forth.

When you suddenly throw in all these magnetic words and create a situation in which you are playing with them, coming up with novel concepts and deep thoughts, it naturally gets you to express yourself in more complicated ways in Persian (as well as English) (and did we mention the bi-lingual advantage). And of course, you all talk amongst yourselves (and feel the buzz of kinship and friendship) and get that lively humming in the language centers of the brain at the same time.