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Poetry Prompt: Farm Blackout Poetry

By Callie Feyen 27 Comments

Found Poetry
One practice I like to teach when unfamiliar concepts are being introduced is a form of poetry called Blackout Poetry. These are poems we unearth from a text.

In my experience, unearthing poetry from a piece of literature or a news article I don’t yet fully grasp puts a sense of play back into reading and comprehension. It also allows me to create with something I don’t completely understand.

Try It

Find a text on farming that you can use to hunt around for a poem. Look for newspaper articles on agriculture, harvest, farmers markets, or even the weather report. Read some of E.B. White’s essays about his experience on a farm. (Confession: I’m jealous of his ability to write fluently when it comes to city and farming landscapes.) Try to find a piece that’s new to you. That is, look for something about farming that you don’t know much about already. This will give your poetry hunt more urgency and will allow you to find the “heart” of the text. I used my friend and fellow writer Stacy Bronec’s essay 10 Reasons Farming Is More Than You Might Think.

Once you’ve chosen a piece, read it through. Next, circle or draw a square around words or phrases that jump out at you. You’re looking for words that sing, that shimmer and shine, words that make you smile or catch your breath when you read them. When you’ve finished marking up the text, go back to the top and see what you have. Here are the pencil marks I made on Stacy’s piece:

Next, black out everything you don’t want to keep. Here’s mine:

blackout poem

If you like, you can copy out the words you’ve kept. Here’s my farm poem, with an added title and minor changes to create correct grammar:

Farming

Look out your window
see all that needs to be done

the forecast
a good indication of what’s to come

a rainstorm
passes you by
or
pounds you
with hail

a farmer must
be willing to learn and change

go with him when you get the chance.

Featured Poem Excerpt

Thanks to everyone who participated in our recent poetry prompt. Here’s part of a poem from Katie we enjoyed:

Apricots

…from the cylinder
in the salad bar.

Small halves of sunshine…

—Katie

Photo by Adam Selwood  Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Post by Callie Feyen, author of The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet.

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  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Callie Feyen
Callie Feyen
Callie Feyen likes Converse tennis shoes and colorful high heels, reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Twilight series. Her favorite outfit has always been a well-worn pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, but she wants hoop skirts with loads of tulle to come back into style. Her favorite line from literature comes from Sharon Creech’s Absolutely Normal Chaos: “I don’t know who I am yet. I’m still waiting to find out.” Feyen has served as the At-Risk Literacy Specialist in the Ypsilanti Public Schools and is the author of Twirl: my life with stories, writing & clothes and The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet.
Callie Feyen
Latest posts by Callie Feyen (see all)
  • Poetry Prompt: Courage to Follow - July 24, 2023
  • Poetry Prompt: Being a Pilgrim and a Martha Stewart Homemaker - July 10, 2023
  • Poetry Prompt: Monarch Butterfly’s Wildflower - June 19, 2023

Filed Under: Blackout Poems, Blog, poetry, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, writer's group resources, writing prompt, writing prompts

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About Callie Feyen

Callie Feyen likes Converse tennis shoes and colorful high heels, reading the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the Twilight series. Her favorite outfit has always been a well-worn pair of jeans and a white T-shirt, but she wants hoop skirts with loads of tulle to come back into style. Her favorite line from literature comes from Sharon Creech’s Absolutely Normal Chaos: “I don’t know who I am yet. I’m still waiting to find out.” Feyen has served as the At-Risk Literacy Specialist in the Ypsilanti Public Schools and is the author of Twirl: my life with stories, writing & clothes and The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet.

Comments

  1. Donna Falcone says

    August 20, 2018 at 12:57 pm

    Oooooo Callie – that’s like magic! Thank you for laying it out so visually – it really motivated me to try!

    Kaite… small halves of sunshine…. oh my goodness that is juicy! 🙂

    Reply
  2. Katie says

    August 20, 2018 at 11:03 pm

    Callie,
    Thank you for featuring part of my apricots poem:)
    Cannot wait to try Blackout Poetry!

    Donna,
    Thank you:)
    Makes me smile and drool all over again remembering how happy I was to see apricots in that salad bar and how their taste made that summer day sweeter:)

    Reply
  3. Sandra Heska King says

    August 21, 2018 at 11:05 am

    I have an old Pictorial Review Standard Cook Book (Special 1931 Edition) in which I found yellowed sheets where my mother-in-law had planned various menus (including diagrammed table setups) for local farming events. I’m bummed because now I can’t find the book, so I hope it’s still packed somewhere. Anyway, I wrote a blog post about it that I titled “Between the Lines” a few years back. So I used that title. The words of this “poem” are taken are taken from my mother-in-law’s notes.

    And Katie… small halves of sunshine. Sweet!

    Between the Lines

    Charlotte Grange Fried Chicken Supper
    October 18, 1941
    Served 190 persons
    Planned on 200
    25 chickens–none left
    1-1/2 bushels potatoes–none left
    50 pounds of cabbage
    3 heads left, weighing 20 pounds
    32 pounds of cottage cheese
    40 quarts of applesauce
    19 pies, 3 cakes and 3 quarts
    of whipping cream
    diluted for coffee.

    Kieser Farm Face-Lifting Lunch
    September 15, 1949
    Planned on 1000 people
    Mrs. Fulton’s barbeque recipe
    serves 250
    hamburger buns for $8.82
    from Holsum Bread Company
    ran out.
    pies and fried cakes
    chips and ice cream
    on north and south sides
    gum and candy on the east
    cashiers on the west.

    Reply
    • Dave Malone says

      August 21, 2018 at 11:40 am

      Fun closing. 🙂

      Reply
      • Sandra Heska King says

        August 21, 2018 at 2:22 pm

        Thanks. I wish Mom had written down what the price of lunch was. 🙂

        Reply
        • Dave Malone says

          August 23, 2018 at 3:07 pm

          🙂

          Reply
    • Callie Feyen says

      August 21, 2018 at 12:36 pm

      Sandra,
      This reminds me of a cookbook I found in my Grandma Ayanoglou’s kitchen after she died. It is slim, and typed out with hand drawn illustrations. It looks like one of those cookbooks church ladies would put together. I took the cookbook because it made me laugh – there is no way my Grandma Ayanoglou, who was born in Aleppo, Syria and came to the US on a boat she almost didn’t get on (along with two daughters under 6), needed a cookbook. Nobody told her how to cook or bake, I will say that much. And that woman did not share recipes. “Figure it out yourself,” she’d say. “Now, go play.”
      Anyway, I still have the cookbook because I have no clue why she kept it except for a laugh, and I figure even though I do use it quite frequently, I’m in on the joke. Sort of.

      These poems are scrumptious. I can hear your MIL’s voice in these notes: sturdy and businesslike. I like “3 quarts/of whipping cream/diluted for coffee.” I can taste those lines.

      Also, a Face-Lifting Lunch! I must learn what that is. It sounds like the beginning of a Flannery O’Connor story. This almost reads like a journal entry. I remember I used to take notes on my day in the boxes of a planner I had for writing down school assignments. They read just like this except they’d go like this: wore: yellow shorts with matching blue and yellow striped t-shirt; went to 7-11 with Celena to get Cherry slurpees; watched Say Anything instead of doing homework…….I don’t a lick of pre-algebra, but I can tell you what I wore in April of 1990.

      Reply
      • Sandra Heska King says

        August 21, 2018 at 2:21 pm

        Callie, I love the story of your grandmother. What a hoot. And your own journal entries. And what you wore–certainly you wouldn’t want to wear the same outfit too close to the last time. So fun. My father-in-law kept a diary. It usually consisted of things like:

        “Went to hardware store to buy wire.”
        “Called on the Smiths. Had apple pie.”
        “76 degrees. Rainy.”
        “Drove cattle to south farm.”

        And then later in the nursing home…

        “Dennis came. Watched the football game.”
        “Had turkey and mashed potatoes. Terrible.”

        I don’t know what a farm face-lifting is unless they were prettying the place up? Why would that take 1000 people? And why would you make them pay to eat?

        Reply
  4. Dave Malone says

    August 21, 2018 at 11:40 am

    Callie,
    This is really fun. I love that you tackled farming. (On a tangent re E.B. White, I plan to read Charlotte’s Web this fall. Excited for that experience–I don’t believe I read it when I was a child.) Thanks for this inspiration.

    Reply
    • Callie Feyen says

      August 21, 2018 at 12:25 pm

      I’m glad you think so, Dave! I find Blackout Poetry is a great way to “come at” a topic that is a tad intimidating. Plus, it restores my belief that poetry can be found in anything, especially in what I am afraid of or overwhelmed with.
      I also did not read Charlotte’s Web as a kid (I wasn’t a reader and that’s a story for another day), but read it with my daughters while I was in graduate school. I chose the book after reading EB White’s essay titled, “Death of A Pig.” This essay, I believe, was the work that led him to Charlotte’s Web. If you can get your hands on it, I recommend it. I have mine in a copy of his book called Essays of EB White.
      Also, Charlotte’s Web is one of my favorite books, but not because of the pig or the spider. I love them, sure, but I love the very subtle growing up story of Fern. I also love Templeton the rat.

      Reply
      • Dave Malone says

        August 23, 2018 at 3:18 pm

        I’m glad I’m not the only one. 🙂

        Though the essay can be found on The Atlantic site, I believe I’ll go old school and find the essay in one of his anthologies. Thank you so much for that. My grandfather was an Ozark farmer (and a cagey oft easily dislikable old man), yet. He really struggled with having his animals butchered. Looking forward to my EB White experience. 🙂

        Reply
  5. Stacy Bronec says

    August 21, 2018 at 4:26 pm

    Thank you for choosing my essay for your post! I think your poem sums up my essay perfectly. I love seeing it from an outside perspective. What a fun topic for August!

    Reply
  6. Debbie says

    August 21, 2018 at 5:26 pm

    I’ve wanted to try one of these so hopefully I can set aside the time to do it. I’m thinking of essays by Wendell Berry…

    Reply
    • Bethany R. says

      August 21, 2018 at 9:17 pm

      If you do, I hope you share it, Debbie. 🙂

      Reply
      • Sandra Heska King says

        August 24, 2018 at 11:27 am

        What Bethany said.

        Reply
  7. Katie says

    August 21, 2018 at 11:00 pm

    Farming Primer

    It’s a lifestyle
    constantly checking the weather
    farm kids learn about life and death from an early age
    and to not take life for granted

    Ag Week is every week
    it’s hard to take a day off
    a farmer must be willing to learn and change
    Ag Day is to recognize those who put food on the table

    many blogs dedicated to farming and ranching
    we don’t take what we do for granted
    working from sunup to sundown isn’t just a phrase
    it’s a passion and a calling

    Reply
    • Amy Farley says

      August 24, 2018 at 5:07 pm

      Well done!

      Reply
  8. Richard Maxson says

    August 23, 2018 at 10:28 am

    Homing Song

    Kulning, a song of Norway,
    a melody for the animals, to call them home,
    a yodel from the herder, her voice
    off the distant hills, the message caught
    in symphonies of Grieg and imaginary
    frozen lands, far back my own. I hear it.
    I’m coming home.

    https://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/blogs/kulning-haunting-beautiful-swedish-herding-call-thats-also-song

    Reply
    • Amy Farley says

      August 24, 2018 at 5:10 pm

      A strong sense of place. Interesting.

      Reply
  9. Amy Farley says

    August 23, 2018 at 2:27 pm

    This is from a Wendell Berry Lecture in 2012 for the NEH. Perhaps cheating as his writing is already so poetic?

    To imagine is to see most clearly.
    Seeing with visionary force.
    Affection is personal.
    No distinction between the fate of the land and the fate of the people.
    Abiding in and living from some chosen and cherished small place.
    Husbanding all the goods by which we live.
    Thrift and affection, connections to nature and to one another.
    Ownership of a small property is personal, intimate, familiar and affectionate.
    Affection involves us entirely.
    An exhausted Wisconsin farm
    Began its restoration
    For affection
    An ecologist, he felt an informed sorrow for the place in its ruin
    He imagined it as it might be
    A profound, delighted affection radiated from every sentence he wrote about it.
    Affection leads to authentic hope.
    ____________________________________________________________________________________
    Speak for human wholeness against fragmentation, disorder, and heartbreak.
    Begin with a language not disturbed by mystery, things unseen.
    Soul-sustaining habitations: houses, households, earthly places where lives can be made and loved
    In defense of such dwellings the vocabulary that I have depended on:
    Truth, nature, imagination affection, love, hope, beauty, joy.
    In such words, we find our indispensable humanity without which we are lost and in danger
    Adapting kindly the many human households to the earth’s many ecosystems
    Land and people have suffered together
    This has not been inevitable.
    We do not have to live as if we are alone.

    Reply
  10. Dave Malone says

    August 23, 2018 at 3:19 pm

    Love these poems!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      August 23, 2018 at 7:09 pm

      Thank you. I posted a longer one on my blog.

      Reply
      • Sandra Heska King says

        August 23, 2018 at 7:22 pm

        Can you leave a link, Amy? I clicked on your name, but it took me to a strange page

        Reply
        • Amy Farley says

          August 23, 2018 at 8:26 pm

          My blog is just34me.wordpress.com
          Sorry, it has a certificate error on the link with just my first name.

          Reply
          • Sandra Heska King says

            August 24, 2018 at 11:05 am

            Thanks! My favorite line from what you’ve “unblacked” here is, “To imagine is to see most clearly.” 🙂

Trackbacks

  1. Poetry Prompt: The Farm—Endings and Pretending - says:
    August 27, 2018 at 8:01 am

    […] to everyone who participated in our recent poetry prompt. Here’s a poem from Sandra we […]

    Reply
  2. Twirl Book Club: On Clothes—The Lightning Thief | says:
    May 4, 2020 at 7:35 am

    […] chapter 9, Callie anticipates another lightning moment. She plans to teach her students how to do Blackout Poems, but her fellow teacher disagrees — rather violently — because Callie’s plan doesn’t fit […]

    Reply

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