Linda K Sienkiewicz

Writing life, line by line

Blackout Poetry – as creative as you want to get

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Blackout poetry with colored pencil leaves and blue colors--text is covered up, revealing other specific words that make the poem: A new note of color, blue like little scraps of sky, freshly patched, like whimsey, a headgear of laurel leaves and wild bare exhilaration of life and youth astonished her

A mix of writing and visual art

All you need to make blackout poetry is imagination and the ability to let your mind take creative leaps with given text. Even my logical, engineer-minded husband enjoyed this project when we participated in a workshop after my reading for In the Context of Love at the East Tawas Library. Any age can participate, too. My ten-year old granddaughter enjoys making them.

When I shared a political blackout poem on Facebook, a friend asked me about guidelines. The best part: there aren’t any! Simply tear a page from an old book and get started.

Rules: Forget logic

The words don’t have to make logical sense as they would in a sentence. You can create a mood, conjure an emotion, or use a combination of words that surprise you or make you think. You don’t have to draw or paint a fancy background, either. Simply cross out or mark over the unused words.

words circled on blue marker on a text in preparation to make a blackout poem

How to start

If you’re still unsure, this simple how-to may help:

  1. Use pencil to circle the words you want to make up your poem. Have fun playing with different combinations of words.
  2. After you decide on your poem, clearly mark your chosen words with circles, rectangles, or whatever shape works for you, using marker, ink or colored pencil.
  3. Color or mark over the unused words. That’s it.

In the third picture, below, notice I accidentally colored through the word “desire” (I happened to look up while coloring). No big deal — I simply chose another word, “meditation.”

Process of making a blackout poem began with circling words in pencil
1. My word choices in pencil
words I want to keep for the blackout poem are now squared off in red ink
2. My final words
coloring around the words I want to keep for the blackout poem
3. oops! I colored over “desires”
blackout poem finished showing text: changeful as the colors of meditations this thought called love
4. Final poem

Get as colorful or simple as you want!

Blackout poetry with vivid colors resembling fire. Text reads Look around try to locate the silk muse then go back with a fresh perspective

If you’re interested in the history of blackout poetry and how it differs from other forms of poetry, such as found poetry or erasure poetry, see The History of Blackout Poetry.

For me, it’s a relaxing, almost meditative break from my usual writing.

If you’re looking for some amazingly creative examples, see #blackoutpoetry on Instagram. And have fun!

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Thank you for visiting!
Linda K. Sienkiewicz writes fiction, poetry and essays.
Her second novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailments, is coming October 27, 2026 from Regal House Publishing: When an anxious overthinker finds discarded love letters, her fixation on a stranger pulls her straight into chaos, heartbreak, and the inconvenient unraveling of her carefully constructed life.
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