A Play with Words - Erasure Poetry

Today in class, our professor introduced us to a new form of poetry called Erasure poetry or Blackout poetry. We were reading the poem Refugee Mother and Child by Chinua Achebe for our Postcolonial Studies paper and were asked to interpret the poem. While everyone pondered over the words, Sir encouraged us to write our own sentences or poems from the given text, by selecting a word from each line.

Erasure poetry or blackout poetry is one where "...a poet blacks out or in some way erases words from a preexisting source to create new poems." (Poetry Foundation).

Everyone got to work on their poem individually and in groups. Initially, I was sceptical about the success of producing something meaningful out of limited word choices. But seeing my classmates marching up to the front to write their compositions on the board inspired me to give it a try. Once I got the hang of it, I started enjoying the process of selecting and arranging words.

Refugee Mother and Child by Chinua Achebe

No Madonna and Child could touch

that picture of a mother's tenderness

for a son she soon would have to forget.

The air was heavy with odours

of diarrhoea of unwashed children

with washed-out ribs and dried-up

bottoms struggling in laboured

steps behind blown empty bellies. Most

mothers there has long ceased

to care but not this one; she held

a ghost smile between her teeth

and in her eyes the ghost of a mother's

pride as she combed the rust coloured

hair left on his skull and then -

singing in her eyes - began carefully

to part it... In another life this

would have been a little daily

act of no consequence before his

breakfast and school; now she

did it like putting flowers

on a tiny grave.

My Composition

Madonna picture forget

heavy diarrhoea,

washed-out ribs, struggling bellies.

Long-held smile of pride, left eyes.

This daily act, now like grave.

I don't know what exactly made me like this composition. Probably because I wrote it :) Though it cannot be said to have a well-connected, overall meaning, I find a sense of ignorance and negligence surfacing in this poem. What do you think?

Overall, it was an exciting and creative hour where we played with words and meaning. Though I was hesitant in sharing my composition, the supportive bunch of people there urged me on, and I was glad I did it. I was particularly happy when our professor appreciated it.