As a poet, I am constantly looking for ideas and inspiration. So naturally, I was excited when I came across this poetry pearl of an idea when checking Twitter last evening. It comes from Austin Kleon, http://www.austinkleon.com/newspaperblackout/ an Austin , Texas based artist and writer. Austin calls this method for composing poetry ‘Blackout Poetry.’ He uses newspaper pages to redact the original text with permanent markers to eliminate words not required, thus leaving only those words essential for creating the desired message. Austin encourages fellow poets to dive right in and try blacking out and then sharing the resultant poems on his web site. This strategy works in a similar fashion to ‘found poems’ and ‘river poems’ in so much as it brings old pages back to life by using the words in an enterprising and creative way. I can imagine Blackout poems working really well with the student writers I meet, as it allows them full control over the composition they ...

To try this poetry idea you need to gather a plentiful supply of books. I went to my personal library, scanned the shelves for suitable titles before arranging them in an order that provided some cohesive flow of ideas.  When I was satisfied with the order, I photographed my brand new spine poem. An easy,fun way to engage young poets and more experienced poets in creating words of wonder and delight.

Here are a couple of Collage poems. All you need to get started are some magazines or newspapers a pair of scissors, a camera and eventually some glue, should you wish to immortalize your creation. Lots of fun for the word nerd with in you.