April is National Poetry Month and once again, NWPL has a small station set up for anyone to stop by and create a “Found” poem. Also known as a “Redacted” or “Blackout” poems, these are created by removing words from an existing printed page — any newspaper, magazine, or book page will work. Select words or phrases by masking others with a marker or crayon to create a poem. Your new creation may echo the original text, posit an opposing theme, or not relate at all.

Play with words and phrases. Change your mind. Add a drawing. Make it rhyme or not, long or short, serious or funny. It’s your poem! We have newspapers and pages from damaged donations for you to experiment with. If you wish to share your Pruned Poems, we will display them by the big clock on the first floor and in the window of the children’s room.

This kind of found poetry goes back over 250 years to Benjamin Franklin’s neighbor, Caleb Whiteford, who redacted words and phrases in newspapers to create puns which he published. More recently it was popularized by Austin Kleon who turned to words on a newspaper page when facing writer’s block.

Poets of all ages might find inspiration to construct a found poem through deconstruction of another’s text.