Pretty Penny Writing Prompt 4

Show the results of Blackout Poetry.

The first time I remember learning about blackout poetry was in elementary school. They provided the page of some poor book and we spent time mutilating it into something beautiful again. I can’t promise that me aged in the single digits actually recreated something grand, but I guess I can’t make that promise for twenty-three year old me, either. I don’t love the idea of sacrificing any of my books, but I do have an old copy of a Charles Dickens book that can provide a page in the name of art and inspiration.

After a few minutes working off a page from the introduction in the 1985 Penguin Classics edition, here is the result:

The many were the end,
The family team scattered instead.
Journey, women,
to the furnace to work,
and power the notorious horrors

of imprisonment itself.

Blackout Poetry from page 17, “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens

I don’t have a Sharpie so I’m unable to post the page, but will do so as soon as possible. Blackout poetry was fun and I look forward to doing more of this! Although not exactly a writing prompt, this activity still works to promote creativity. Let me know if anyone else enjoys this or has other ideas.