Lots of Black Printable Poem Templates

Every teacher has students who insist that they can’t write poetry because they can’t think of the right words. That’s why dark poetry is so amazing! The words are already there—students just need to uncover them and discover the hidden message. Our collection of blackout poem templates has tools to make the process easier for students of any age.

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Blackout Poetry Template and Worksheets

Here’s what you’ll find in our dark poetry collection:

Discussing Black Poetry

This page helps readers to find the “hidden message” in a selected page of text. First, they flip the page a few times, looking for the keywords they want to use. Then, they make some drawings to capture an image, theme, or mood that they have.

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Blackout Poem Guide

In this worksheet, students make connections between the keywords they have chosen, identifying the message or story they want to convey. Then, a simple guide walks them through the steps to create their final eraser poem.

Images of Black Poetry

Although not necessary, many dark poems use imagery to create a mood or build on a theme. This page provides clip art images that students can color, cut out, and paste onto their page. Or they can simply use them for inspiration as they think about their doodles and drawings.

Blackout Poetry Template

This page print from Peter Pan it’s the perfect way to try dark poetry! It has many images and descriptive words that will stimulate the imagination.

Tips for Using These Black Poem Templates

Looking for ways to use dark poetry in your classroom? Try these tips and teaching ideas:

Start with one page

One of the best ways to show readers how different all black poems are is to have them all start with the same source (like ours Peter Pan page above). Once everyone has finished their poem, compare the results to see if a page of text can reveal very different hidden messages for everyone!

Provide options for source objects

Once your readers have built up their confidence, offer a wide selection of pages to choose from. Include pages from magazines, newspapers, old books, or anything else with a lot of text for them to look at.

Try “speed dates”

Have students choose a page at random from your stack, and spend two minutes flipping through it and taking notes on how they will use the poem. Repeat the process several times until everyone has had a chance to look at several options, then ask students to choose their favorites.

View a gallery of dark poetry

This style of poetry has a lot in common with visual art, which makes it very suitable for display. For an even more interesting gallery, copy the original source pages first, then hang them next to the finished poems.

Read more: What is Blackout Poetry? (With Examples and Ideas)

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Also, check out 24 Types of Poems, and Poem Examples (and Free Printables)!