Black Out Poems are not unfortunately about what happened after I drank too much last night. It’s a poem where you take a page of a book and find words to make a poem by blacking out the rest. I used a book that many consider to be the gold standard of literature, but I can’t stand it. I’ve read the same first few chapters about a hundred times but never can move forward. I figured I would take great pleasure out of omitting most of the words, for at least one page. My “Blackout Anna Karenina” project.
Poem 1 – As bleak as the book itself.
“We are all Gamblers in Life”
In a dream
The Gambler walked
And Tears came
Remembering
That he had Nothing.Silent Noise
Ringing in the Street,
Still Empty –
Asleep.
A bell rang in the frozen air.
And what he saw then,
He never saw again after,
And cried
He did not realize
That the hand was near Twelve.
The hand, didn’t move.
Poem 2 – slightly happier, as if Russian Writers can be happy
“Pavlovian Love”
Tears
From Love
Changed
The Exquisite Meaning
A bell rang
And his mouth
Reached out,
Unconsciously Utterly
Independent
Of His body, Without
Effort
An unseen hand –
Touched him
And those NOT
Earthly creatures
With a Whir of Wings,
Darted Away.
Leave a Reply