A Temporary Truce

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 book 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 A Temporary Truce.

 About the Black Out Poem and A Temporary Truce

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 book page, or 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.

A Temporary Truce

Off the mattress
Small scrapes
Benefit
Her determination
A complicated situation
“I am requesting parley.”
A dainty expression
“You want to chat?”
A bristled snort
A temporary truce
This current sabotage
Reconsidered
Her full attention
Looked wild
“I’ll get it in a minute.”

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.

Be sure to follow Molly on Twitter!

Entry 343: Still Working on Precipice
Keeping a journal has never been one of my strongest pursuits. I …
What I Learned from Participating in NaNoWriMo #7
I started participating in NaNoWriMo in 2014 because of a dare. Someone …
The Arrival
In high school, I had a young teacher straight out of college. …
Entry 342: Examining Next Year’s Goals.
Keeping a journal has never been one of my strongest pursuits. I …

Published by henhouselady

I am the author of Saving the Hen House. I didn't know when I started it would turn into a series. I love to ride motorcycles, the blues, my family, and going on adventures. This old hen rocks.

2 thoughts on “A Temporary Truce

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d