Getting creative for poetry month!

Interns Erinn and Serene were feeling all the poetic buzz this April, and decided to participate in some found poetry exercises! Inspired by this Erasure Poetry blog, we've taken three Godine titles and created our very own erasure poems. An erasure poem is a type of found poetry created by erasing words from an existing text in prose or verse and framing the result on the page as a poem. So, without further delay, here are our three poems!

1) From Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson

“The Besieged Generation”

filthy, furtive fact of life

overflowing with secret

wife, mother, ordinary life

little mouse of a woman, seldom seen

whose eyes would glow of love

one son, a picture stamped upon her mind

 2) From War in Val D’Orcia by Iris Origo

She will go on August 15^th, my birthday, in the middle of the garden path.

In a few days they tell us, 'it is to be,' they say.

As they sit, drinking their classes of wine, the most highly specialized human beings.

Both of them are Russian officers.

I say: ‘No,’ I belonged to the depth of the inevitability of war. 

3) From As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee

“One Midsummer Morning”

In the torrid street, cool air, wet tiles, and wine-soaked wood:

            this place was yours

Pot-boys and men holding goblets of sherry, piled round the counters

succulently enthroned on great banquets, twitching on beds of palm-leaves

Also on offer would be sizzling pork or lamb

But then this after all, was some of the best in the world

That’s how I remember it: a proliferation of watchmen, taxi-drivers, sleek officials

fastidiously biting into tart pink flesh,

            tasting half-forgotten seas, half-remembered empires

The surge of heroes was a way of life,

buried away from the burning sky;

so successfully come to terms with this particular priority of pleasure

Feeling creative? Grab the nearest book, make a copy of any page you'd like, and block out words or phrases until you've got yourself a brand new poem! We'd love to read what you come up with, so feel free to share in the comments or tweet us your poem @GodinePub!