WHAT IS A BLACKOUT POEM?

A blackout poem is when a poet marks out already established text– like in a newspaper– and starts redacting words until a poem is formed. One interesting feature of a blackout poem is that the text AND redacted text create not only a poem, but also a work of visual art.

This blackout poem is a little different because not all of the unwanted text is redacted. It simply gives the reader credit for understanding the desired text is the text being exposed in the black swatches.

The page this poem is extracted from comes from a rather obscure book about hunting big game. If you read the page and not the poem it is interesting because it seems to read like a violent murder mystery.