Writing Reflection #4

Newspaper Blackout Poetry

The process I used to create the newspaper blackout poems was to start by identifying interesting words that didn't necessarily  go together. Once I have completed the article I than looked at my list of interesting words  and I began to arrange them in such a way as to make them coherent. Once they were coherent I than went through the article to find the words necessary to complete the poem. Once the poem was complete it was simply a matter of blacking out the rest of the article and joining the dots. The main challenge of this form of writing is creating a coherent idea from what amounts to be a garbled mess. The rest of the assignment came relatively easy.

I found the assignment more difficult then my original expectation. Especially the creative portion of the assignment. Everything from choosing the article to connecting the dots was not as straight forward as it seemed. This assignment absorbed a surprising amount of time and simply put it wasn't really much fun . The best way to describe this assignment like the one before it, is that it makes a better exercise then format. ( a chosen method of writing.)

I have yet to do enough forms of writing to make a proper comparison. If I had to choose between this and the six word memoir I would probably choose the six word memoir. Another large issue I have with this form of writing is the lack of coherency and structure the poems have. A large number of the poems were difficult to read and even more difficult to follow including my own.

This assignment has simply shown me that I work better with the the more standardize format and when I am not limited to what is in front of me. By standardize format I mean a linear organized structure where one doesn't have to flip flop around the page. I found the assignment to be difficult and not comparatively rewarding.