Compliance

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. There are many pages of the novel I selected left. I’m going by the old cliché “waste not, want not.” I plan to use Rebecca Hunt’s Mr. Chartwell until it runs out of words to create Black Out verses. The poem I called Compliance.

About the Black Out Poem and Compliance

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 by Rebecca Hunt to create these poems.

Compliance

Decadent self-pity
Sucked at the edges
Clear instruction to leave
Mashing into
Registering the scene
Lay peacefully
Not completed
Scornful
Then Travelled
Riveting
Brilliant
Was moving
Obscuring
Drink and swear
Was recited
Proof of
Objections
Did nothing
Pretending compliance
Entirely

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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