Erasure Poetry

Definition:

"Found poetry" composed of words selected from an existing text (or through erasure of other text).

Example:

(from Jacob's Room by Virginia Dare)

Let us consider letters--how they come at breakfast,
and at night, with their yellow stamps and their green
stamps, immortalized by the postmark--for to see one's
own envelope on another's table is to realize how soon
deeds sever and become alien.

Virginia Dare's paragraph transforms into your own poem:

Consider letters
at night,
immortalized by
another's alien.

We'll Need:

• Colored or black paper cards
• Scissors
• Glue
• Literary journals

Process:

Find language that appeals to you
Look for nouns/verbs in vertical succession
Outline poem with a pencil
Cut the poem out carefully
Glue the poem onto paper card
Sign your poem