I recited egg. I said said. I said bed. I hurried parties. I jangled. !!!!!

Thanks to a prompt from PRISM international's web editor, Clara Kumagai (did you know the PRISM website posts weekly writing prompts? ), I learned about The Deletionist, an automatic erasure poem generator.

It's a "Javascript bookmarklet" which, with one click of the mouse, "erases" (in reality, just switches the font colour to match the background) most of the text on a given webpage, turning it into one giant erasure poem.

I thought it would be fun to see what it came up with when unleashed on some of the poems on my website. My favourite result was for "The Party".

The original:

The Party

I sought this guy out at the party
to thank him for the joke he’d told
at last year’s party, which had served
as my icebreaker at every party since.
He vaguely recalled the party, me,
but the joke not at all. I recited the joke
and watched his confusion tumble
into a bottomless well of joy –
an Alzheimer’s patient discovering
his own hidden Easter egg. Good party,
I said. Good party, he said.
Good party, I said to the hostess,
my hands excavating the mound
of coats on her bed. I hurried home
almost satisfied, rain lashing down on me
as it does after parties. I jangled my key
into the lock and the neighbour’s dog
sprang up – I’m here! I’m here!
I’m here! I’m here! I’m here!

The auto-erased:

The Party


I sought this guy out at the party 
to thank him for the joke he’d told 
at last year’s party, which had served 
as my icebreaker at every party since. 
He vaguely recalled the party, me, 
but the joke not at all. I recited the joke 
and watched his confusion tumble 
into a bottomless well of joy – 
an Alzheimer’s patient discovering 
his own hidden Easter egg. Good party, 
I said. Good party, he said. 
Good party, I said to the hostess, 
my hands excavating the mound 
of coats on her bed. I hurried home 
almost satisfied, rain lashing down on me 
as it does after parties. I jangled my key 
into the lock and the neighbour’s dog 
sprang up –  I’m here! I’m here! 
I’m here! I’m here! I’m here!

I think it might be better than the original. Especially those exclamation marks.

Try it yourself, and let me know your results!