About a year ago, I shared a sample of blackout poetry: essentially a found poem drawn from an already published text. In my case, I have been crafting my poems from a discarded book I picked up at our school library. I have titled that collection Odd Things, as each poem appears on the odd numbered pages, since blacking out words with a marker tends to bleed through even the thickest of paper. Flipping through that collection this morning, I came upon the following poem, a fitting piece for National Poetry Month. If you ever feel stuck, struggling with writer’s block, blackout poetry is a great way to get the creative juices flowing once again! Any published text will do – books, magazines, newspapers, etc. I encourage you to take some time this weekend to get creative and harvest some poetic pearls, whether you call yourself a poet or not. It’s like finding treasure or, as Wendell Berry would put it, a chance to “Practice resurrection.”
The Poet
Vincent H. Anastasi - 2017
the deepening ground 