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Poetic form

What is a Blackout Poetry?

Definition

Blackout poetry is made by redacting a printed page — usually newspaper — with a marker until only your chosen words remain.

Take a page of newsprint and a permanent marker. Somewhere in that article about municipal zoning, a poem is hiding; your job is to find it and black out everything that isn't it. The surviving words, read in page order, are the poem — and the redaction itself becomes the artwork. Austin Kleon's Newspaper Blackout (2010) named the form and turned it into a worldwide habit, though artists have been making poetry by subtraction for much longer.

It's the most beginner-friendly form in existence: the vocabulary is pre-supplied, the blank page is already full, and the marker makes you an editor rather than an author — which, it turns out, is a gentler door into poetry. The constraint is real, though: you may choose words but never rearrange them. The page's order is the form's one unbreakable rule.

Structure of a blackout poetry

  • Source text: one printed page (newspaper is traditional)
  • Words are kept in their original page order — you select, never rearrange
  • Everything unchosen is blacked out with marker
  • The redaction itself can be drawn into art: shapes, patterns, illustrations

How to write a blackout poetry

  1. Scan the page for an anchor — one strong noun or verb that snags you.
  2. Circle candidate words lightly in pencil before committing ink.
  3. Read your circled words in page order and cut until they cohere.
  4. Black out everything else, leaving white space around your words so they breathe.
  5. Photograph the result before the marker bleeds through. It always bleeds through.

Common questions

What is blackout poetry?

Found poetry made by blacking out most of a printed page so the remaining visible words, read in order, form a poem.

Who invented blackout poetry?

Artists have redacted texts for centuries, but Austin Kleon's Newspaper Blackout (2010) named the form and popularized it worldwide.

Is blackout poetry plagiarism?

No — it's transformative found poetry, and the source is visibly part of the work. Credit the publication anyway; it's good manners and half the story.