Palimpsest

CRAFT TERM

Oct 26

Palimpsest is writing material (such as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased.

via Merriam Webster

Applied to poetry—a palimpsest is a layering of text in which the uppermost layer claims the most clarity while simultaneously obfuscating what was previously written or documented in this space.

Example

Douglas Kearney is a master of typographical experimentation. Here are some palimpsest examples from Doug (via Poetry Foundation):

Afrofuturism (Blanche says, “Meh”)
After Lauren Halsey and Mike Demps

Listen to Doug read this poem here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/play/76850

Prompt

Go through your poems and find an older piece you would like to respond to. It can be yours or by somebody else. Now write a non-linear response to this piece. Explore the page and use multiple writing implements if you can. Keep adding layers as you desire and include doodles, drawings, or collage elements.

Resource written by:

Featured

Kelsey Bryan-Zwick

is a Pushcart Prize-winning author and the Assistant Director of The Poetry Lab. A multi-modal creative whose debut book of poems, Here Go the Knives (Moon Tide Press 2022) is part memoir, part magical realism, part illustration and focuses on their decades surviving with debilitating scoliosis. A graduate of UCSC (go Banana Slugs!) Kelsey has helped develop The Poetry Lab’s online and accessible workshop model and continues to tend the literary hub of online community for rogue poet-scholars throughout the world.

Find them on Instagram @theexquisitepoet | 📚 Read More by Kelsey