I’ve always loved blackout poetry, taking an existing text and erasing parts of it to create something new. Erasure poetry enables not only the poet but the reader to see an older work in a new way.
According to the Academy of American Poets, one famous erasure poet, Ronald Johnson, took the form to a new level when he revised the first four books of John Milton’s Paradise Lost.
One of my favorite collections of this type of poetry is from Heather Aimee O’Neill and Jessica Piazza, Obliterations. You can check out my review of that book from 2016.
Here’s Robert Frost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay (with my erasures):
Nature's first greenis gold,Herhardesthueto hold.Herearlyleaf's aflower;But only so an hour. Then leafsubsides to leaf.So Eden sank togrief,So dawngoes downto day.Nothinggoldcan stay.
Here’s the clean version:
Nature's first green hardest to hold early flower subsides to leaf. grief, goes down Nothing can stay.
Give it a try and see what you can come up with.