Poetry comes in many shapes and sizes. From a haiku to a limerick, to a sonnet, there is plenty of options for any beginner or master poet. It is a great way to express emotions, practice rhyming, or capture a memory. Poetry is similar to a puzzle, and putting the pieces together comes easier for some than others. An often overlooked variety of poetry is blackout poetry. It can be a great new approach to poetry, and a way for the creative mind to challenge itself.
For those who don’t know, blackout poetry is a form of poetry where you start with an established text. It can be a newspaper, a flyer, a neglected book, or anything lying around you may have no further use for. The idea is to draw over, or blackout any words that are no longer useful, and leave words that will create a poem. Here is an example piece I recently did myself.
Photo by: Ethan Ege
As you can see above, I used a Sharpie to draw over a majority of this text. Now, I must admit that I am not the most skilled at drawing, so it is a bit sloppy. However, I do enjoy the part of blacking out the words. It is very meditative and calming. It also helps me to have a similar feeling as I would with trying to draw, without the pressure of trying to make something look pretty.