What is blackout poetry?
Blackout poetry is a form of writing that is created by elimination rather than addition. Rather than thinking up different verses and words, you use a work that was already created and pick out words or phrases that stick out to you to create an overall meaning.
Blackout poetry generally has marked out pieces of the passages to highlight the words the writer chooses. Other forms of blackout poetry can combine visual elements and words to create a very artful presentation on the page.
I had a friend in my writing classes that showed me their blackout poetry work. They took essays or articles and told a new story from the old using their chosen words and associations.
I also tried my hand in blackout poetry with passages of classics like Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. In classic pieces of literature, I found in my personal experience that there is a variety of words and descriptions that can be used for blackout poetry., I also noticed how the poem I formed from different words sometimes still reflected the heart of the passages of the classic works.
Overall, I would highly recommend trying your hand at blackout poetry. Once you get a sense of how it works, it’s so fun to learn how to create a story from another story. Not to mention, the way you can take some creative liberties by playing with the design is also really unique and interesting.