Archive
Till death’s sudden passing
A good friend disappeared
The girl was vague
The perfect talisman
Sacred neon god
It remains a mystery
Coal-black and ghostlike
I have odd friends
Society had doubts
What Is Blackout Poetry?
Recently I’ve gotten into the trend of “blackout poetry”. Blackout poetry is the creative use of selected words on a printed page to form a kind of lyrical piece. On a printed page – from a book or newspaper, for example – certain words or phrases are selected, and the remaining content is “blacked out” whether it be with marker, paint, or any other creative technique. The remaining text is strung together as phrases or sentences, creating the finished piece.
It’s recommended that if attempt blackout poetry, you use printed materials that are disposable, such as books that are no longer readable, damaged, missing pages, what have you, or newspapers and magazines. In my case, most of my recent attempts have been of the non-destructive variety. The printed material is scanned and the words selected in Adobe Photoshop. The remainder of the text is creatively blacked out by patterns or other scans. I also use a kind of “flow chart” style, where the words are joined with bars in the order they should be read. I find this especially helpful for when words don’t necessarily read right-to-left.
Below are some videos on the history of blackout poetry, a creative piece on its creation, and a tutorial on how to create it. Lastly, another piece I had worked on recently. If you’d like to see what extremely creative things are being done with the medium, click on this link to go to Instagram. There’s a whole world of inspiration out there. Til next time!
Bold Face Letters 