On Sunday: Bandaging the Words

A page from Melody: The Story of A Child, an erasure poem by Mary Ruefle.

"I use white-out, buff-out, blue-out, paper, ink pencil, gouache, carbon, and marker," Ruefle explained in Gulf Coast journal. "Sometimes I press postage stamps onto the page and pull them off–that literally takes the text right off the page! Once, while working on an all-white erasure, I had the sense I was somehow blinding the words–blindfolding the ones I whited-out, and those that were left had to become, I don’t know, extra-sensory or something. Then I thought no, I am bandaging the words, and the one left were those that seeped out."

To see more of Melody, go here (provided by Gwarlingo).

To learn more about Ruefle, and her erasures, go here.

Comments

[Sandy Longhorn]

Thanks for this, Drew. I love the idea of erasures, but every time I've tried one, it has fallen flat. I'll check out this book.

[Drew]

Hi Sandy,
I'm diggin' Mary's erasures because they are so artful and intimate. Always a fan of black-out poems, these are another excellent example or re-creation.

Your collages remind me of an erasure -- the act of choosing each image is, like poetry, both intentional and mysterious.

Thanks for dropping by!

[Sandy Longhorn]

Thanks for the sweet words about the images. For now, I'm addicted to making them.

[Trish]

Ooh, I love these. Thanks for sharing.

[Drew]

Trish - Good stuff, huh? Makes me want to grab some white-out and go!