Tween/Teen Blackout Poetry

Wednesday, April 12, 6:30 PM @ Mary J Benson Branch

April is Poetry Month! Come out for a fun evening of blackout poetry. Ages 12 and up.

Blackout Poetry How-to

Start by finding some pages with words on them. These can come from magazines, newspapers, or very old falling-apart books that you are ready to let go.

1. Skim your page of words. Don’t read carefully, as the point is just to grab an idea from the words, not take them in. Find a word, phrase, or general theme that you like.

2. Go through and lightly circle the words or phrases you might want to use. Grab a blank piece of paper and write them down in order, then read through them. Cross out the words you don’t want. If you need a few connecting words (like “a”, “the”, “it”, etc.) then dive back in and see if you can find them between the words you want to connect. You often can.

3. Go back through your poem and boldly box the words you are keeping with pen, sharpie, dark pencil, etc. Erase any circles around words you don’t want.

4. Read through your final poem. Sketch in a few images or symbols on your page that relate to the theme of your poem. Now it’s time to start blackening. Using a sharpie, pen, or pencil, black out everything that is NOT a word in your poem or one of your own sketches.

5. Write out your final poem to display next to your blackout poetry. Add punctuation if you wish.

The show begins. 
Water swirled
lighting up drifting glow.
I watched its glimmer
fleeting
flicker out. 
A trail of sparkles set out at sunset. 

6. Finally, share your poetry!

From site nowsparkcreativity.com who consulted and cites: 
DePasquale, John. “Blackout Poetry.” https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/john-depasquale/blackout-.... 10/28/18.
Kleon, Austin. “Newspaper Blackout Poems.” https://austinkleon.com. 10/28/18.