It’s been interesting working on this project and trying to find a story or poem on each page of this book without getting tied up in the context. One of the things that I’ve had to make peace with is that every page has the potential for success and failure.
There’s definitely some pages that I feel good about and some where I’m almost positive I’ve blown it. That’s not to blame the raw material available, it’s my ability on that day to sift through and find the pieces that will result in a poem.
Which is really what happens every time anyone sits down to write. Will I be able to pull the words out of the ether, uncover the story fossil, or be receptive to what the inside of my head is trying to tell me? Some days it’s easy. Some days it’s a struggle. And some days, it goes nowhere at all. Failure is always an option.
On a positive note, even failure is a victory of sorts… as long as it’s the result of some chance, which is what blackout poems are all about for me. Sometimes, it’s a matter of taking a chance on a phrase or word, hoping that it’ll all hang together and read the same way I think it will once the extra words have been redacted.
Here’s one I think might’ve gotten right.
