New Discoveries / Erasure Poetry

The second challenge

Hello, dear Woofenberry’s

It’s been a sluggish beginning for the Woofenberry Writers Club. I made the poor decision to start it during a New Zealand summer which slows me. As we are emerging from the season, I can feel myself thawing out of it. This is the second challenge and your chance to earn your ‘ new discoveries' badge. We are going to be getting into Erasure poetry, as I believe this is the perfect second step to take even if poetry isn’t your preferred medium. I know all of you free verse writers are likely ripping your socks off, but I want to start slowly and steadily and implement poetry unblockers. Erasure poetry is great when you’re struggling to write because the words are already there. Although it is fun, it has a frustrating side. Sometimes, you can stare at a text and not get anything from it, and I am here to tell you that’s entirely normal. Today, I want to help you create erasure poetry, but before we get to the creation stage, Poet Erin Dorney identified six styles of erasure poetry, and I want to focus on four of those types today.

1. Blackout

Blackout is the standard for erasure poetry. It is the common visual you may associate with erasure, where you read a page and select words to form a new poem. Don’t put too much pressure on making these masterpieces. A lot of the time, people struggle to create these because they have built their expectations too high. This tends to be true for general poetry writing; people focus too much on manoeuvring the rowboat rather than just enjoying the lake. As always, you can just create blackout poems for fun that are designed to be silly and invoke laughter.

2. Cut Out

Cutout is removing the words from the page and rearranging them elsewhere, akin to the likes of magnet poetry. To create a cut-out, you can use a knife and cut out the words you want to use, then arrange them into a poem.

3. Cover up

I have never actually created a cover-up erasure poem, but this is a less destructive way to create erasure poetry. You use material to cover the words you don’t want and only leave behind the ones you do. You can use pieces of paper, beads, rice, etc. An added layer is to use a material that adds to the poem. For example, if your poem leans heavily on nature, then cover it up using grass or leaves.

4. Cross Out

This is very similar to blackout, but instead of using a marker to black out the text entirely then, you cross out the words. This tends to be the type of erasure I create the most.

You can obtain free books from libraries, and instead of them being thrown out, you can transform them into works of art. You get better at writing and are also resourceful, so it is a double win. You can create erasure from any source, whether it is old books, newspapers, letters, etc. The vital component is that your source material has plenty of text. Now that you have your source scan the page and see if anything jumps out at you. You can either make light pencil marks or have a separate piece of paper for your findings. Take note of conjunctions (and, because, but, etc) because these will help bind your ideas together. ‘And’ can also be a great starter word in the same sense as flash fiction. You can create phrases such as:

And the moon falls out of the sky

And he ran until his legs were entirely smoke

Every page you do an erasure from is different. Fiction books seem easier than nonfiction, and sometimes word size can change how we focus. If you’re struggling, then try a different page or one of the following techniques.

Word Creation

This is when we create words from letters on the line. If you wanted to say ‘somehow the moon doesn’t feel as bright’ but you’re missing the ‘as’ you can create the an and s from nearby words and create the word yourself. You can also take the as from bigger words such as ‘bass’ or ‘taste’.

Create a path

If you find a poem but it isn’t in order, then you can square off all the words you want and then build a path with an arrow telling people where to start.

Create sentences

The focus of creating poetry sometimes fogs our minds and leaves us blank. Do a few pages of erasure to warm up where you are crafting simple sentences. Give yourself a sense of accomplishment.

As everything does in life, the more you do these, the easier they will feel. Grab some source material, find a starting point, and create. If they go nowhere, then that is okay. Start a new page. Some people who I workshop with prefer starting at the end. Tell your brain that these are designed to be fun because they are. Thank you for being a part of the Woofenberry Writer’s Club. Let’s thaw this slow.