The blank page can be intimidating for a writer, especially on Day One of a challenge. Don’t stress! A zentangle poem banishes writers block and sets creativity loose to play. You are gifted with a page of words, and your task is to find a poem in those words … and enhance it.
The zentangle poem is a form of found poetry using repetitive lines (zentangles) to frame your poem. There is no limit to your creativity!
How to Create a Zentangle Poem:
- Draw a box around the words that you want to use for your poem.
- Use zentangles to delete unwanted words, and enhance your poem. (Your zentangle may turn into a picture. But it doesn’t have to.)
Other Things to Remember:
- We read from left to right, and top to bottom – so your words need to flow logically, for readers to make meaning.
- Don’t cross any words out until you know you’ve got a poem – because it might just be that you will need them!
- Don’t take too many words in one chunk. Less is best.
- Cut out filler words (a, and, the …)
- Your poem does not have to relate in any way to the theme of the text.
- Don’t create zentangle poems in your favourite book! Or a library book!
Miriam Paternoster has the most astounding video of her zentangle poetry process.

Chocolate

Terribly Fond

Dragon Lies

The Telephone
Not being an artist, I find my poem first, and then create my simple patterns from there. Sometimes I just pattern the page. Other times, my zentangles resemble an object. (Sadly, there are also times when my zentangle ruins a perfectly good poem.)
You can try our own zentangle poem using an old book, a newspaper article, an academic text (guaranteed the most fun you will ever have studying) – even this blog post, if you’re really stuck for ideas. The options are unlimited.
If you’re posting your poems to socials, don’t forget to hashtag #poetrypepup so we can all enjoy your work. I’ll be following along on Twitter and Instagram – and my co-conspirator, the wonderfully helpful Trudie from CQRASN will be handling the Facebook side of things! One of the best things about a writing challenge is the community of writers – so don’t be shy about sharing!
Have fun!
Incidentally, Theodore artist, Tracey Hewitt is running a free art journaling program from 3rd – 24th June.
Week One;
Explore what happens when we commit to repeating a simple line across a whole page, or around simple shapes; a grounding, meditative process.
I used to Zentangle quite a bit. And I tried mixing them and poems, but I haven’t used Zentangle to do a found poem. Love the effect!
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They are quite lovely, Laura. And I love that they bring the two forms of creativity together – and are so enabling! For such a wide range of writing abilities.
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Kat, I love your Zentangle found poems! I Your old telephone and dragon drawings are great. Thank you.
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Thanks, Gail. I must admit, I’m a little chuffed with them, too.
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