Blackout poetry is a relatively new form of poetry created by author and artist Austin Kleon.  Blackout poetry involves using a permanent marker to “black out” all the words on a written page of paper (e.g. a newspaper) except for a few choice words that make up the poem that you want to write.

Below is an example of a blackout poem (all poems taken from NewspaperBlackout.com):

The process for making a blackout poem is fairly simple.  Below are the steps:

1. Get a permanent marker.  This is what you’ll use to black out the page you’ll use.
2. Find a text you can use.  Newspapers are a great resource.  You can also use pages from novels or textbooks.  Whatever you’d like.
3. Look for the “anchor” word or phrase.  Don’t worry about reading the whole page or article.  Just try to find a word or phrase that grabs your attention.  This word or phrase is what we call the anchor.  It’ll be what will guide your whole poem.  When you find your anchor, put a rectangle around it.
4. After you find the anchor, read the text to find connecting words.  Now you can read the text, but looking for words that relate to your anchor.  Put a rectangle around each connecting word.
5. Black out the rest of the page.  Once you’ve found the words that can make an interesting or thought-provoking poem, use the marker to black out the rest of the page, leaving behind the words you selected.
6. Keep in mind how your reader will read the poem.  Text goes from left to right and top to bottom.  Don’t confuse your reader.

And voila!  You have a blackout poem.  Take a picture of your poem and send it to us and, if we like it, we’ll post it on the blog.