The cut-up is a writing technique in which a poet or writer takes existing text, cuts or breaks it into pieces, and rearranges those pieces to create a new work. The method is often used to generate unexpected images, odd combinations of words, and surprising associations that a writer might not have planned deliberately.
Cut-ups can be made with scissors and paper or with digital text. They are especially associated with experimental writing and with artists such as William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin.
Example
Moonlight from a borrowed letter
spills across the table.
A train of adjectives arrives,
then leaves without its nouns.