Poetry Made Easy -Black Out & Book Spine Poetry

 

Do you groan when a teacher tells you that you are going to have to write a poem?

 Does the idea make your stomach twist itself inside and out?

Do you want  to run screaming out of the classroom screaming,

“No!!!! NOT POETRY MONTH!? I HATE POETRY MONTH!”

 

or

 

Are you the poetry cheering section screaming,

“YES! I love Poetry and FINALLY I get to write something I LOVE?”

 I recently found two types of poetry that help both the lovers and haters of poetry!

 Book Spine Poetry and Black Out Poems

IMG_0353cblackout-transparent

 

 

 

 

 

Book Spine Poems are made with book spines!  They are very easy to create!

1–Find some book titles that interest you.

2–Stack them on top of each other.

3– Mix and re-arrange until you have the combination that works for you.

4–Voila! You are a poet! 

I found out about this idea from another blogging librarian, Travis Jonker, who was inspired by the artist, Nina Katchadourian.  The rest is history!

Here are some Bulldog Readers Book Spine Poems!

 

Bulldog Reader Book Spine Poems
Bulldog Reader Book Spine Poems

 

The second kind of poem that we tried are called Blackout Poems. Austin Kleon is the inventor of the blackout poems. They started quite by accident.  Graduated from college and suffering from a bad case of writer’s block, Austin started playing with newsprint and crossing out words he didn’t like. The leftover words became a new style of poems!

To make a blackout poem all you need is a newspaper, a marker and you are ready.

 1–Find an articleIMG_0357

 

2–Outline the words you like

3–Cross out the ones you don’t likeIMG_0358

4–Admire your poem!

 

 

 

IMG_0401

 

What kind of poems do you like to write?

Have you ever tried to make a Book Spine Poem?

What about a Blackout Poem?

Leave us a comment and let us know!

 

 

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

2 thoughts on “Poetry Made Easy -Black Out & Book Spine Poetry

  1. Dear Mrs Hembree,

    I love this concept about how to go about writing a poem.

    I, have to admit writing poems I do rather enjoy as I feel I love to write about the seasons, animals or just about life today here in Austalia.

    BB has not seen this post as yet as she is not well but hopefully once she is feeling better I am sure she will really like this post just as much as I do.

    From your blogging pal,
    AA.

  2. Dear Mrs Hembree,
    Awesome post.

    I am very sorry to say I do not like poetry.

    I have read a poem book before and it was alright.

    My favourite poem was this one Auntie dot.

    Auntie dot has not go a lot.

    In her flat there is a cat, a loaf of bread, a little blue bed, a dead TV and me.

    I hope you like it.

    From Bianca.

Leave a Reply to BB Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *