Erasure and Blackout Poems

Blackout Poems - A blackout poem is a poetic form as much a visual expression as a verbal one. It is where you take an article or other piece of writing and black out words to leave showing the words or phrases of the poem while the rest is blacked out for visual effect.


One form I've been meaning to get to for a while is the blackout poem and also the erasure poem. Both are sort} of similar with the major difference being in presentation, I suppose.

Or it's kind of like rectangles and squares. You see, all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.

The same could be said of erasure and blackout poems. After all, all blackout poems are erasure poems, but not all erasure poems are blackout poems.

What is a blackout poem?
A blackout poem is when a poet takes a marker (usually black marker) to already established text—like in a newspaper—and starts redacting words until a poem is formed. The key thing with a blackout poem is that the text AND redacted text form a sort of visual poem.

I tried creating my own and pasting it onto the blog, but I'm having technical difficulties—so instead, click here to check out a blackout poem from one of the masters of the form, Austin Kleon.


prompt ▼

Prompt: Find a form of poetry you've never written before and both describe it and write an example.
Written for "The Whatever Contest." "The Whatever Contest -- Closed for Now" 
Word count: 21 words