Blackout Poems

by Kaija on Sunday, January 19th, 2014

Posted in: inspiration, yay
No Comments on Blackout Poems
A faded  version of  an amused  feeling

A faded
version of
an amused
feeling

Last time I posted a blackout poem for you guys was around half a year ago. To be honest, I haven’t been doing much of those for a while now. Distractions, obligations and little time tends to come between people and their guilty pleasures. Yesterday, I picked up a pen, a book neither me or Silver mind destroying and started looking for words, meanings, abstractions waiting to be put together and stories to be taken apart and reassembled. In short, I did a few blackout poems and had a blast doing so.

I noticed I never explained where the whole blackout poem concept came from. A year or two ago either me or Silver stumbled on Austin Kleon’s work. In his own words he is a writer who draws. He’s published three books: “Steal like an artist”, “Newspaper blackout” and the newest addition “Show your work!”. He also posts blackout poems on his blog and among other talks he’s given a TEDtalk on this very subject.

He is very generous and open about his process and talking about creativity, taking a very practical view instead of dressing it up in mystery. Not surprisingly his work inspired us to give blackout poems a go. We were on a roll, and filled multiple square meters of our walls with funny, thoughtful or just plain weird poems. If nothing else, they make for an interesting wallpaper and it’s time well spent.

The ghost of the wrong room.

The ghost of the wrong room.

The coming alive was slower than usual; This was a bitter contrast to the pleasant, indifferent poison.

The coming alive was slower than usual;
This was a bitter contrast to the pleasant, indifferent poison.

The doomed fool had taken the burden of guilt of hell many years ago

The doomed fool
had taken the burden of guilt of hell
many years ago

What writers write is a judgement on fiction actually worth saying.

What writers write
is a judgement on fiction
actually worth saying.

Find a tale of wonder. Fall under the spell a little bit.

Find a tale of wonder.
Fall under the spell a little bit.

I recommend you to familiarize yourself with Austin Kleon’s work, blog and talks. Maybe it’ll give you ideas for projects of your own. If not, it’s still interesting to explore the amount of ideas he puts forward.

Smiles,

Kaija