The following article was written by Therese Horstketter, the Manitowoc Public Library Adult Services Associate.
April is National Poetry Month!
Among all of the genres of materials available to me, my favorite is definitely mystery. I would think that this would be one of the hardest genres to write since you don’t want readers to figure out all the details immediately. I have never attempted to write a mystery and don’t know if I ever will.
But, I have written poetry, mostly way back in high school. I loved creative writing and creating poetry collections—some freestyle, too; it was the ‘70s after all—but most assignments required that I follow forms, such as sonnets or haiku.
This is my favorite poem that I wrote back then. I’m not saying that it’s good, mind you—it’s just my favorite:
“Untitled”
Sometimes she goes to church and kneels and prays
And folds her hands and nods her head so low
And thinks back to the times and all the days
And wishes it was back there she could go
Her hand in his, his fit hers like a glove
Could it have been for such a short, short time?
They were so young, so very much in love
Then he died when that plane fell from its climb.
She nods her head much lower than before
And from her eyes teardrops begin to pour.
I thought I would share it to get you into a writing mood. Or at least a poetry writing mood.
However, the poems that everyone at Manitowoc Public Library would like you to consider creating involve removing words already in print rather than writing new ones. Pretty neat concept, right?
Have you ever heard of Blackout Poems? I had not until recently when a co-worker’s daughter needed to create one for a college course. After checking into them, and seeing what a unique form of expression they are, we decided to set up an area at MPL to post the creations of these unique visual poems. You’ll find this display near our Grand Staircase on the First Floor.
Really, Blackout Poetry—or Redacted Poetry—is a pretty straightforward concept: take a written article, story, or page of a story, and select a few words/phrases to make a statement in the form of a poem to share a thought. It’s actually been around for centuries, with works originating in the 1700s involving puns constructed with words from newspapers.
To be very clear, this is not a contest. We just want you to have fun and to share your creations!
There are very basic guidelines for our Blackout Poetry submissions:
- Please keep it clean, folks! After all, MPL is a public building and a very family-friendly one at that.
- You can use a newspaper article, magazine article, or pages from an old book (we have some used books for sale from which you might not mind pulling a page or two available for the fairly reasonable price of $1).
- Please share with us either by dropping off the page in person at our Service Desk or by emailing a picture of your work to thorstketter@manitowoc.org; mention “Blackout Poetry” in the subject.
- Items will be posted as received and remain posted throughout April.
- We will not be returning your creations, so please make a copy for future personal viewing.
- If you would like to sign your poetry, please do so.
- We reserve the right to not display poems that use insulting, threatening, and/or offensive language.
- Blackout Poetry is open to all MPL patrons and staff.
So, with a wink and a nod to hopefully get you started and a shout-out to everyone’s creative inner-selves, I look forward to seeing everyone’s exciting creations as they arrive!