Photographer unknown.
What to Submit?
It is a year to the day since I hosted the first Standard contest, Graffiti, after a hiatus of close to a decade. In celebration, there will again be multiple placements in the current Standard contest.
This time around, we will have graffiti with a difference: Reverse Graffiti, akin to erasure poetry. Erasure poetry (a form of found poetry) is where the majority of the text in a printed medium is erased to leave only the chosen words, thus forming a new poem.
What to submit?
Title (this and nothing else): Reverse Graffiti
The Design
There are different ways of doing erasure poetry, but for this challenge, the following will apply:
Only using THE TEXT provided below (excluding the words ‘The Text’), create your erasure poem. DO NOT ADD ANY NEW WORDS, however tempting it might be, or change the tenses of words – it will disqualify your contest entry. In other words: It must be verbatim. Only post this new erasure poem in the Poem Textbox, and nothing else, please. You may use indentation and/or white space to position your text on the page if you wish, but it is not mandatory. White space is a term used to describe where the tangible words are not and, therefore, also called negative space. It may be just a couple of words/clauses arranged in their natural sequence to give new meaning to the whole.
MY EXAMPLES
In practice, the erasure poem is framed and displayed like a piece of art. We can’t do it here, so you have to content yourself with the written word on the page. You may experiment with different presentations of the words. ‘Framing’ your words is fine, but not mandatory :)
1. First example– a 'photograph' I produced to better illustrate an example of a possible layout option of the WORDS
OR [Edit: NOT BOTH PRESENTATIONS AT ONCE]
2. Second example - produce just the single piece of text.
Punctuation and capital letters are the prerogatives of the poet (to make sense of your prose).
First example:
Second example:
The light: prismatic tapestries weaver; swaying, coaxing. Shall you watch, yielding your will?
Plagiarism: Plagiarism does not extend to found poetry and erasure poetry.
Judging: There are no right or wrong answers. Just keep your erasure poem brief, please.
Feedback: None.
Optional reading: Erasure Poetry | Poetry Foundation
This prose poetry was produced by BING AI – 27/2/2024, © Suzette Richards. For private use.
THE TEXT
The light, a celestial dancer, obeys your whispered command. It pirouettes through the veil of existence, bending and refracting, weaving prismatic tapestries at your behest. In its luminescent waltz, it paints the cosmos with hues unseen, illuminating secrets whispered by the ancient stars. You, the conjurer, stand at the crossroads of reality, a weaver of constellations. With each gesture, you bend the fabric of time, twisting fate into new patterns. The auroras bow before you, their emerald veils swaying in reverence. The moon, a silver coin in your palm, dances to your cosmic symphony. Will you summon dawn’s blush, coaxing the sun from its slumber? Or shall you veil the world in twilight, casting shadows upon the land? The light, your loyal companion, awaits your whispered decree. For in your hands lies the alchemy of existence, where miracles bloom and stars bow. So command, enchantress of photons, and watch as the universe bends, yielding to your will.
Prizes
First Prize, Glory
Second Prize, Glory
Third Prize, Glory
7 Honorable Mentions
Preparing Your Entry
Submit one copy of your poem online. Format your poem. Please make your entry easy to read — no illustrations or fancy fonts. No extraneous text in the Poem Textbox - per PoetrySoup rules.
English Language
Poems should be in English. Poems translated from other languages are not eligible, unless you wrote both the original poem and the translation.
A Note to Poetry Contestants
You are welcome to enter this contest, whether or not you won a prize in one of my previous contests.