Unwilling to Stay

I have a confession to make. The Black Out Poem has captured my imagination. I find it interesting to take a page filled with writing and turn it into something often contrary to the original meaning. It’s like playing with someone else’s words and making them become my own. Free verse is the best way to work with this form of poetry. Many pages of Rebecca Hunt’s Mr. Chartwell haven’t been used, so I’m going by the old cliché “waste not, want not.” I plan to use this book until it runs out of words to create Black Out verses. The I called this poem Unwilling to Stay.

Black Out Poetry and Unwilling to Stay

Poet takes a black marker and redacts words until a poem is formed. It is important to note the text and redacted words form a visual poem.

Method to use

1. Identify source text. The source can be a newspaper, a page from a book, or any written text.

2. Draw a box around keywords or phrases.

3. Make Connections between boxes. (This is optional.)

4. Color the rest in with a marker. You can use any color. The most common color used is black.

I found this style of creating a poem unique from anything I’ve ever tried before. The words are already provided, and the challenge is to make something poetic out of the text. I decided to use Mr. Chartwell byRebecca Hunt to create these poems.

Unwilling to Stay

On the grass
Freedom of movement
Standing motionless
Arms hanging
Untouched
Muttered a phrase
Circling in the water
Necks high
Drifted off
Ripples moved across the lake
Hen long since disappeared
Unwilling to stay.
What worried him
You can’t hide.
“You look ridiculous.”
With perverse menace
An involuntary reaction
The heartless voice
Waiting for me.

Who is Molly Shea?

Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh.  To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.

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