![\"poem\"](\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/vast\/files\/2015\/05\/poem.png\")
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VAST BLACK-OUT POEMS
\nBut first: a 60-second poetry lesson. Though you may not know its name, enjambment is one of the most recognizable elements of poetry. Enjambment is what makes \u201cWe Real Cool,\u201d by Gwendolyn Brooks, look like a poem (not a paragraph):
\nWe Real Cool
\nBy Gwendolyn Brooks
\nThe Pool Players.
\nSeven at the Golden Shovel.<\/p>\n
We real cool. We
\nLeft school. We<\/p>\n
Lurk late. We
\nStrike straight. We<\/p>\n
Sing sin. We
\nThin gin. We<\/p>\n
Jazz June. We
\nDie soon.<\/p>\n
Using enjambment, a poet creates line breaks right in the middle of what would be sentences. So, the sentence: \u201cWe left school\u201d continues from line 1 onto line 2, leaving \u201cwe\u201d dangling out there in space. Using enjambment and line breaks gives a poem its unique shape on the page. It also allows the poet to emphasize certain words by dangling them at the end of the line (what word does Gwendolyn Brooks seem to emphasize over and over?)
\nNow: experiment with the shape of a poem, and the meaning of each individual word inside it, by creating a black-out poem. First, select a passage from a newspaper or magazine (maybe, if this works, we can use an old book). Then, take your trusty black marker. Black out the words you don\u2019t want, leaving only the ones your poem can\u2019t live without. See below for inspiration<\/p>\n
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