Blackout poetry, Baltimore Oriole stamp from Keith Chambers

[Mail Art News]

Ahhh, hmm, I think I've seen a Baltimore Oriole once. It's the state bird of Maryland, but I think they live in the woods mostly.

[Keith S. Chambers]

Wing finger . . . sounds like a filthy gesture, but who am I to say, my middle finger is always up in the air. :o

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Redactive poetry...sounds good, it has "active" in the word without lowering itself to "sub"trative :-)

'Looks good, Keith!

...and Bom Thrown, "pterodactyl" is not so odd,

it's Greek to me: the Greek pteron, meaning “wing,” and daktulos, meaning“finger.”

[Mail Art News]

I work for the government and I use my black marker to keep the public safe from their own curiosity. Just kidding.

[Carmela Rizzuto]

Redactive, subtractive, interactive?

[Keith S. Chambers]

¿ You engage in work related redaction . . . ? . . . it begs the question, what do you do and who do you do it for. But perhaps, the answers to those questions are above my pay-grade.

I like the idea of de-identification  . . . these pieces come from the writings of another person; in the overall body of work, many people. In the process, the identity of the author becomes obliterated . . . a transformation of meaning that transfers authorship.

[Mail Art News]

Those are terms I have not heard before. When I first learned of them, they were called black-out poetry. Maybe that has negative connotations of alcoholism attached, so redactive or subtractive might sound better. At my job, I have to use a black marker sometimes to "de-identify" documents, so maybe I will call it de-identification poetry. Redact to me sounds like an odd word...kind of like pterodactyl.

[Keith S. Chambers]

Redactive poetry . . . or subtractive poetry — the latter of which is what I've referred to it as for the past few years, but i like redactive better than subtractive, but both work. But, it's in your hands now so call it what you will.