BLACKOUT POETRY
Newspaper Blackout (2010) is a collection of poetry made by redacting words from newspaper articles with a permanent marker. WHO? Austin Kleon from Austin, TX What ?
HOW ???
Blackout Poetry at the Dallas Museum of Art
TIPS Combine both columns into one poem—don’t just do each column at a time! It doesn’t make for a good read. Skip between the two…this allows for more interesting possibilities. Remember that Westerners read left-to-right, up-to-down. Poems read best if they follow that pattern. You can get around the left/right/up/down problem by connecting words with whitespace. (See an example.)See an example What you are doing when making a blackout poem, in the words of Allen Ginsberg, is “shopping for images.” Nouns and verbs make the best images.shopping for images Regardless of where it’s located in the text, I always start a poem by looking for a word or image that resonates with me and move from there. It’s a lot like a word search.word search You don’t have to use the whole text. What to leave in / leave out / how long is the magic. Poetry doesn’t have to be serious! Try not to think to hard about it and let it flow! It might take you a bunch of tries. Don’t be intimidated! Anyone can do it! Poetry doesn’t have to be serious!