First prize winner of the 2nd Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest.

I.

I hear firemen singing,

  twenty-five bathers saying,

    We do whatever we feel.

Fawns answer, Like this:

     rollick;

                         now, in the heart.

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II.

I am alive—

but not too much—

unchanging, and man,

no one has anything,

and no one has to know

the deal; there are no deals.

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III.

I smell

       lime,

iron,

   amber—

        the nteenth odor is excited flesh,

the erection of sweat

—America,

          season

    three,

time.

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IV.

I ugh & wane & eye

forever (I’m hiking)

and Christ,

I’m giving in.

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Erasure poetry begins with removing letters and words from an existing text in order to create a new stand-alone piece that provides new meaning to the original passage. For the 2nd Annual Geist Erasure Poetry Contest, we posted an excerpt from the novel How Should a Person Be? by acclaimed Canadian author Sheila Heti.

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The 3rd Erasure Poetry Contest is now underway. Enter today!

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