Saturday 23 March 2013

Random Acts Of Word Play

The other day I was passing time in the local coffee shop, just sipping my cappuccino and day dreaming about a particularly swoon worthy scene in my latest WIP—when I noticed the newspaper abandoned on the next table had black marks all through one column of text.

When I took a closer look, I realized there were certain words left unmarked, and when read in order, composed a sweet little verse.

Was this a message left by some anonymous admirer?! Had I inadvertently intercepted a coded love sonnet for someone else?!

Nope. It was newspaper blackout poetry.

What's that you ask?

It's simply taking a marker to any article and crossing off stuff until you're left with a cool little bit of word play. Check out this website where you can read samples and even download your own creations for others to enjoy.

I did this today while having my morning coffee in the living room.




I encourage you to give it a try, it's a great way to exercise your writing muscle. More importantly, leave the paper behind for someone else to enjoy. Finding something lovely in a completely unexpected setting makes the discovery all that more special.

Have you come across any newspaper poetry?  




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds like fun. I think I'll try it. :)

Laila N Mysis said...

That sounds so cool o.o I'm definitely going to try it someday ^_^ Didja take a photo of what that someone left behind?

Arianna said...

I see this all the time on Tumblr, and its usually pretty cool until I realize they've done this to an actual book and I get angry. Like, someone did this to a John Green novel and I got very offended. Doing it to newspapers is one things, doing to actual books is another.

LLAP,
Arianna

BR Myers said...

Laila, alas no. I didn't have my phone with me. I considered taking it with me, then I changed my mind, knowing I should leave it for the next person to find.

Anonymous said...

This does sound like fun! I wonder if this is acceptable in old, worn books too.

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