Blackout poetry is created when a page of text from a book or a newspaper is completely covered with permanent marker, apart from a few select words.

Although it has a long history, it was recently popularized by the author Austin Kleon as a cure for writer’s block. 

Its principals are similar to the ‘literary collage’ idea of cut-up writing, which was invented by writer William S Burroughs and painter Brion Gysin in 1959. 

I’ve included instructions on both below so you can experiment with the different techniques. Both are a super-fun way to create poetry, and also give you ideas for artworks of other kinds.