A blackout poem is created when the poet uses a marker to redact text from a book or newspaper, leaving carefully selected words that form the poem.

I first learned about blackout poetry several years ago when my department at work had a blackout poetry contest and I had so much fun creating my submissions.

Here's the poem that won.

I entered the labyrinth of cubicles,
racked my brains at a computer monitor
to sell all manner of useless trash.
Was it this that had broken me?
That smashed me to smithereens
past all hope of rescue?

Inside a computer
I searched
in order to illuminate my condition.
Consulting
the ancient world victims of a tragic fate,
I was attacked by mechanisms
that sought to annihilate me.
The digital world is cruel.
In my despair of a possible life,
I have yearned to be more.