My first erasure poem
I’m attending the Association of Writers and Writing Programs 2022 Conference and it’s been extremely inspirational.
Today, I learned of a medium I didn’t know existed: erasure poetry. It’s creating a poem by deleting words from any published text: newspaper articles, ad flyers, etc.
Erasure poetry, also known as blackout poetry, is a form of found poetry wherein a poet takes an existing text and erases, blacks out, or otherwise obscures a large portion of the text, creating a wholly new work from what remains.
I decided to try my hand using another poem. One night, when my late husband and I were dating, I read him “Love Is Not All,” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. It has always been one of my favorites. He lived in Minnesota then. On a late night flight to spend the weekend with me in Michigan, he decided to surprise me by memorizing the poem. Needless to say, I married him. My friend recited it (by heart) at our wedding.
Erasing letters and words from the original results in how I often feel now that he’s gone.
Here’s the original.
Love Is Not All - Edna St. Vincent Millay Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain; Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink And rise and sink and rise and sink again; Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath, Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone; Yet many a man is making friends with death Even as I speak, for lack of love alone. It well may be that in a difficult hour, Pinned down by pain and moaning for release, Or nagged by want past resolution's power, I might be driven to sell your love for peace, Or trade the memory of this night for food. It well may be. I do not think I would.