Blackout poetry is one of my favourite ways to experiment with words. It forces me to string together words that seem, at first, awkwardly placed, and form them into a sentence or phrase that I would not have originally thought up.
So what is Blackout Poetry?
A type of poetry that can be created by taking written pieces of text from another part (e.g. a book or newspaper) in order to create your own poem.
What does Blackout Poetry look like?
Here are some examples from Pinterest…
Blackout poetry can look like anything from blacking out most of a page to leave just a few words to pop out, to creating a piece of artwork around your chosen words.
Personally for me, I prefer to black out the entire page and leave the selected words to do the talking.
Why do Blackout Poetry?
- It serves a great writing prompt or warm up
- It can challenge you to find new ways to describe or say things, using words in ways that you would not normally in your own writing
- It can make you read a book that you have read before in a new and unique way. I often find that I pick out new things about a character or theme
What do I need for Blackout Poetry?
This depends on the style you are going for, but some basics are:
- A book/magazine/newspaper etc. that you don’t mind defacing (I use cheap copies from charity shops)
- A marker pen
- A pencil
Want to try this style of poetry?
Why not watch my video below and join me in creating a poem from someone else’s words (in this case, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby).
READER IN A REVERIE 