Thursday, July 8, 2021

Blackout Poetry

Have you ever heard of blackout poetry? It is a form of "found" poetry, where you select words from a written text to create something new. Once the students got over the shock of me letting them write in books and rip out pages (don't worry, these were weeded books nobody had read in more than 10 years), they came up with the following:


First afternoon
the castle with you.
Help the fence.
She was crying again.
It's hard for me
to miss the medieval feast.
- CC, "Eleven"


Began tipping
I had fallen back
onto a bag of flour.
Somehow the blankets
hung on my little friend.
- B.I., "Across the Wide and Open Prairie"


Old North Road
One bright morning
A secret hidden
by the Old North Road.
- O.O., "The Midwife's Apprentice"


I jammed it.
The game stopped.
No way, but he heard every word.
With 38,387
Wilt Chamberlain
were just numbers filed.
- N.C., "Along Came Spider"


Memories of my grandmother
Part of the world
It was so beautiful
I howled with laughter
With love and affection
A way for her to entertain me.
- T.C., "The Tales of Uncle Remus"


Trail dust
Heavy rains
began folding
crawling into our bed.
- E.P., "Hattie Big Sky"


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