🖤 Black Out Poetry: Finding Voice in the Spaces Between Words

✂️ What Is Black Out Poetry?

Blackout poetry begins with an existing page of text - a book, a newspaper, a speech and invites you to uncover hidden meaning within it. Using a pen or brush, you black out unwanted words, revealing a new poem formed from what remains.

It’s both an act of creation and transformation: taking something that already exists and reshaping it into something personal, honest, and new. The result is a unique form of visual and written expression that blends mindfulness, storytelling, and art.

🌿 A Mindful Approach to Words

At Think Big Do Bigger CIC, we use blackout poetry as a mindful creative practice.

Participants begin by scanning a page, slowly reading until a phrase or word stands out -almost like it calls to them. From there, they piece together fragments of meaning, line by line.

The process is unhurried and meditative. It’s not about perfect grammar or rhyme - it’s about listening to what wants to be said. Every workshop becomes a quiet dialogue between the participant and the page.

“It’s like the words were already there - I just needed to see them differently.” Participant, The Black Out Poetry Project

💬 Giving Voice to Experience

For many participants, blackout poetry becomes a safe way to explore feelings that are hard to articulate.By reshaping someone else’s words, they can express their own - without the pressure of starting from a blank page.

In our Black Out Poetry Project, we’ve worked with diverse communities across Portsmouth - including people in recovery, those rebuilding confidence, and individuals navigating personal change.Each poem becomes a reflection of resilience, humour, and hope.

When displayed together - like during our In Our Words exhibition in Victoria Park - these pieces form a powerful collective narrative of community voice.

🖋️ Creativity Without Barriers

One of the most beautiful things about blackout poetry is its accessibility. You don’t need to be a writer or an artist - just curious. A single page of text and a marker pen can unlock creativity in anyone.

Participants often tell us that the process helps them:

• Focus and calm their thoughts

• Reframe experiences or emotions

• Feel proud of something they’ve created

• Connect with others through shared storytelling

  
  

It’s a reminder that art and language belong to everyone - and that creativity can meet people exactly where they are.

🌈 Evolving Our Practice Through Words

The success of The Black Out Poetry Project has shaped how we continue to develop creative wellbeing work at Think Big Do Bigger CIC.

It’s inspired new approaches to using words, art, and reflection together - helping people express and process their experiences through creativity.

These learnings are now informing how we design future workshops and proposals, including our Words of Wellbeing development work - expanding the ways we connect art, mindfulness, and community voice.

💫 Co-create. Reflect. Change. Thrive.

Blackout poetry continues to evolve as a core part of what we do at Think Big Do Bigger CIC. It represents everything we believe in: co-creation, reflection, and transformation. Every poem is a reminder that meaning can be found - even in the spaces between words.

If you’d like to bring blackout poetry workshops or creative wellbeing sessions to your organisation, school, or community group, we’d love to collaborate.

📩 Contact: info@thinkbigdobigger.co.uk 🌐 Learn more: thinkbigdobigger.co.uk