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Posted 05.08.12 in Features

August Writing Challenge 3: Censorship Poem

photo by boklm

We are challenging you to write your own mini anthology of poems this August! To help you, every two days poet Jon Stone will set a new challenge on the Young Poets Network site to spark off a new poem.

 

Challenge 3: Censorship poem.

Make a poem by blacking out parts of a page of text.

 

Jon’s example of a Censorship Poem:

 

Elixirs

consider the relic
devotional knick-knack
My change of heart
had spoken:

a small box out of a locked cabinet
our monastery possessed
this cloister
this little casket

I am not able to
break the spell
cause ruin  lapse into
triumphs
wage   war
in great astonishment.

I want to express some
great consideration
candidly, friend

the only existing record
in that cabinet
is well known to you

all earthly things
wandered in the desert
devoted      to
the desert

that Saint
in the torn jacket
It was the devil dressed in
scorn
perturbed for a moment by this imposition.

Submitting your poem

Jon has now chosen his favourite responses to the Censorship challenge, but you can still use his workshop to spark a new poem and send to one of the opportunities on our Poetry Map! Have a read of these Censorship poems for inspiration:

Maiden by Natasha Keary

Darkness by Angelique Cridland

E.M.I.T. by Lauren Clare Malthas

The Outsider in the Sun by Jake Reynolds

 

Jon Stone was born in Derby and currently lives in Whitechapel, London. He is co-creator of the multi-format arts journal Fuselit and micro-anthology publishers Sidekick Books. He won a Society of Authors Eric Gregory Award in 2012 and his collection, School of Forgery (Salt, 2012) is a Poetry Book Society Summer Recommendation. He works as a court transcript editor.

Comments (11)

11 Responses to “August Writing Challenge 3: Censorship Poem”

1. Angelique Cridland says:

   August 5, 2012 at 7:07 am

   This is brilliant! Cannot wait to get started!

   Reply
   • Young Poets Network says:

     August 6, 2012 at 11:38 am

     That’s great! Looking forward to seeing your work!

     Reply
2. Rachel says:

   August 5, 2012 at 10:03 pm

   Does it have to be just one page of text or can it be two?

   Reply
   • Young Poets Network says:

     August 6, 2012 at 11:41 am

     Hi Rachel, it can be as many pages as you like.

     Reply
3. Sarah says:

   August 7, 2012 at 9:57 pm

   So we take a page of existing text? Need it be a book page or can the imagination stroll to use any sheet of text?

   Reply
   • Young Poets Network says:

     August 8, 2012 at 9:39 am

     Hi Sarah, you can use any page of text. It might be fun to do two poems, one from a fiction book and one from a factual book, and to compare the results.

     Reply
4. Lauren says:

   August 9, 2012 at 2:09 pm

   Does we have to include what book/text we used?

   Reply
   • Young Poets Network says:

     August 9, 2012 at 2:30 pm

     Hi lauren, you don’t have to send the original text just then poem you create during the challenge. Might be fun to let us know where the page of text came from though, but not essential.

     Reply
5. Isobel says:

   August 17, 2012 at 8:18 am

   Are we allowed to change some of the words on the page? For example, if the book had a verb like ‘walk’, could we change it to ‘walked’ to fit in with the rest of our poem?

   Reply
   • Young Poets Network says:

     August 17, 2012 at 9:05 am

     Hi Isobel, I think the sprit of the challenge is to have a go at creating at least one version where you only use fragments from the original text. But then you can always make another version afterwards where you tweak things here and there. Why not submit both versions
     to Jon and explain in the email that one follows the challenge strictly and the other is more fluid.

     Reply
6. tyrone says:

   August 19, 2012 at 12:04 pm

   have you got any old poems that I could put on my poem forum, you could put a link to your site and talk about your cometitions?

   Reply