Poems can come in many forms. Free verse, long, epic ballads, haiku, so many ways to turn simple words into beautiful poetry. Black out poetry borrows printed words from pages to form a poem, highlighting them in some way to show off the form of the new poem found within the text. This project uses old book pages and paint to accomplish this task, a great project for poets young and old.

Difficulty level: Moderate
Time required: about an hour

Things you’ll need:
Book pages
Pencil
Fine paintbrush
Craft paint
Masking tape

Things to do:
1. First, tape the page down to your work surface, masking off an even border around the printed section of the page.

2. Next, spend some time looking for words on the page to form your poem. Lightly circle them with a pencil, picking out words until you have a one you are satisfied with.

3. Once you’ve identified the words you want to keep, carefully paint around them with your paintbrush. When you’ve pulled out all the words, paint the rest of the page to cover up the rest of unwanted words.

4. Allow the paint to dry and then carefully peel away the tape to reveal you poem piece.