2024 Poetry Challenge on X

Making Poetry Out of Found Words and Recycled Poems and Literature - Part 3

I’ve always searched for the best words when writing prose or poetry or fiction. The right sound of words as they roll off the tongue as well as the visual aspects of meter and line length and the shape of the form. Poetry is glittering, transformative light that sings and dances its message across the page.

Found poetry, or black out poems, are poems created from anything in print. This could be a page of a novel, a spread from a how-to manual, a mother’s recipe, or another poem itself. Find a random page in an old or damaged book. Tear it out or photo copy a page from one of your favorite books. Enlarge the text if needed.

There. Now grab your favorite markers, a pencil, and colored pencils or paint. You’re ready to create another work of art from someone else’s words. Their work is copyrighted, but for educational purposes, you can try this exercise as long as you don’t sell the poem you create. Verify this with an attorney if you are not certain.

I like dictionary pages. I’ve used other poems and fiction pages. I’ve tried a computer manual which was quite fascinating. I’ve even tried my own poetry and created a black out poem from my own work and created a completely different piece.

I posted this work on X after a word prompt with the word, and the poem with the same. name, “Invictus.” Curious what to write, I sat staring at my screen and began searching for the definition. Thankfully I found the words to a traditional poem on a Google search and attempted a found word poem, drawing on top of the existing poem. The trick was to use words in the order they are printed on the page and not skip around.

I reused letters and puzzled new words from the words of “Invictus” to create a new poem. Disect and separate letters carefully. Make it clear to read your final poem as a work of art and a poem.

I hope you enjoy this activity. Let me know how you like creating black out poems.

Check out this previous post on SquareSpace for a more detailed step-by-step process for black out poetry.

Here is another link to a post I made about black out poetry:

You can find me and follow me on X at this link below.

Patricia’s X / TWITTER HOME

Found Poetry Blackout verse over Invictus poem to create a new poem typed below.

X Post by The Poetry Arena

Words of the poem, “Invictus,” from a print online used for educational purposes only, and for alternative text readers without the original formatting of indents and spaces.