Using Amy Tangerine's Creative handbook -Blackout poetry x

So we are now on the home leg of this look at Amy Tangerine's Creative Handbook and I have had so much fun and creative joy from completing this project. I never thought that something so simple could really help engage my creativity again.

So Project 4 in the handbook is to create your own Blackout poem. I have seen this idea used before on the Internet, obviously, and primarily by this man, Austin Kleon. He has produced a book full of poems he created by choosing words within newspaper columns and then blacking out the remaining text to make a poem like this.........

Photo Austin Kleon

If you want to hear more about this method of creating poetry, this video is excellent in explaining how many other writers like Austin have used similar ways to create their own art.



For my project, I chose 2 pages of prose from a women's magazine and basically chose words or phrases that jumped out at me. I didn't want to make it complicated so I simply played around with words I really loved or which pulled me in and then blacked out all the surrounding text. This is what one of my final pieces looked like once I'd blacked it out.......

I was quite amazed when I wrote out the poem at how lovely it was and i really seemed to convey some of how I feel about creating things. So here is my poem............

Began with intrigue

once past loved the smell of paint

I loved how it made me feel

Something fresh and brave

Embrace new things

Enthusiasms - the moment, excited

Once big world learning

Indulgent, announced photography

Pictures?

Just go -working, hooked, illustration

Reminded me, unexpected benefits,

Recipe - friends, ballet dancers favourite warm-up

Listen to the silence - creativity and emotions

Transformed into joys

Do the unexpected thing

Surprise yourself

Curious woman

Amazing

So what do you think?