BlackOut Poetry

I can honestly say that I never thought I would be making a blog post about poetry. As you probably have gathered by now I am some what of an avid reader. I claim to read pretty much anything. Poetry has never been included in that. I don't read poetry. I don't get it and I don't enjoy it.

Recently, however, I've been thinking about how unfair that is of me. I hate when people say they don't like reading but they've only ever tried reading one or two books all of the same genre. And that's what I'm doing with poetry isn't it?

It seems to me that there is a new wave of poetry that I can try. So try I will.

Expect a poetry book haul in the next month or so!

I was watching a booktuber by the name of Ariel Bissett, she's someone that I dip in and out of watching but recently it's been more a dip in than out. In the video Ariel was talking about blackout poetry.

Blackout poetry is a method which uses already written work in order to make poetry. So in theory you could turn to any page in a magazine, newspaper or book and blackout words in order to highlight the words which would form your poem. An Instagram account that shows this beautifully is Colette Love Hillard.

Now if you read my post a few weeks ago about how I treat books then you will know that I am not generally comfortable with the idea of writing in my books. So when I decided I wanted to give blackout poetry a go and I wanted to do it a book I had to decide to find a book to "ruin".

I decided to go to a charity shop and buy a second hand book to use.

Now I took this one step further than most, while some would just buy any old second hand book I decided I wanted to buy: a second hand book, a second hand book that I had previously read, a second hand book that I had previously read and enjoyed and finally a second hand book that I had previously read, enjoyed and was in a particularly ugly edition.

All of this of course was to assuage my guilt at "ruining" a book.

So I have chosen a particularly boring edition of Dracula by Bram Stoker.

I am absolutely loving making this poetry. Never did I think I would be able to make poetry and actually enjoy it.

This poetry is written for me not for anyone else. Sharing it doesn't feel comfortable but this form of expression has helped me so I want to share it in the hope that it may help others.

As I am now determined to find my niche in the world of poetry I would love some recommendations!

Kate // SK