Crazy Rest - HubPage Blackout Poetry

Crazy small room.

Tough.

Welcome the morning.

Rest came over.

Newspapers

The original Blackout Poetry by Austin Kleon was done on newspaper, which he calls Newspaper Blackout. So I would probably reach for newspaper first, if I didn't have my own Hub articles to blackout.

Newspaper is readily available to everyone, you can get it just about anywhere, and it's cheap (if not free). Newspapers also offer tons of articles of all different sizes to work your blackout poetry magic on.

Austin Kleon's blog features Blackout Poetry taken from the little one to two paragraph long horoscopes found in the newspaper.

Magazines, like newspapers, offer a plethora (gosh I love that word) of articles and advertisements to unleash your black sharpie on.

Make sure the magazine you're zeroing in on is one you have already read and are done with, and that nobody else wants to read!

Magazines might allow you to use little more creative energy with your blackout poetry. Words are not the only think you can highlight in your poem. There are all kinds of photos you could incorporate into the blackout poem as well, if you feel so inclined.

I love the idea of creating something completely new and original out of something I created previously.

This is precisely why I chose to write Blackout Poetry on my own HubPage articles (plus, I thought it would be pretty fitting and appropriate for publication on HubPages).

I already had a few dozen articles to pick from, so I began with the first article I published, and I am working my way up to my latest article.

I liked the idea of taking my own words, and making poems out of them, since I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to wing any other kind of half decent poetry.

Another cool way to create Blackout Poetry is to take a song you like (or, heck, even a song you hate) and black it out into a poem.

Use Christmas carols, your favorite song on the radio, or even the Happy Birthday song. It might make your poem more interesting if your readers are already familiar with the song you created the poem from. You could compare the original song with your new poem.

The possibilities are pretty wide open.

In keeping with the idea of using pieces of writing that most people are familiar with... why not create Blackout Poetry using famous documents and speeches?

You could make your own blackout poem using the constitution, the I Have A Dream speech, or the bible and other religious writings. You could use your favorite poem, and create a new poem out of it.

The more fun you have with Blackout Poetry the better they turn out. The next time you're sitting in a waiting room, or on an airplane, or in church, grab an article, magazine, or bulletin. Whip out a black sharpie and go to town on it.