This past week, as I considered how to create lessons for my students around America Recycles Day (November 15), it reminded me that the idea of recycling extends beyond objects to words and poems. That insight led me to look for another poetic form that uses this idea. And from there to the palimpsest: a poetic form and creative practice that invites us to reuse, renew, and re-layer existing texts. In poetry, a palimpsest is more than a draft or a revision — it’s a conversation across time, a dialogue between past and present, where every line can carry both shadow and light.

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Poetic Sundays: Playing with the Palimpsest

Some poems are like living manuscripts — full of memory, fragments, and echoes of old words. That’s exactly what makes the palimpsest such a fun (and meaningful) poetic form. The term comes from manuscripts that were scraped or erased so new writing could be added on top, but traces of the old always remain. In poetry, a palimpsest is a poem that layers new writing on top of old — your own past lines, journal entries, or even other texts — letting old and new interact to create something fresh, surprising, and layered with meaning.

So, just like a patchwork quilt or a collage, the palimpsest allows us to reuse, renew, and re-layer. But unlike a collage or a cento, which gathers pieces, a palimpsest is about overwriting, responding, and conversing — with your past self, with history, and with the ghostly and ancient and even not-so-ancient lines that shaped you.

How Do You Write a Palimpsest?

1. Pick Your Base

Choose something to layer over. It could be:

• A poem you wrote long ago
• A journal or diary entry
• A fragment, quote, or lyric that stuck with you
• A line or two from a public-domain poem

Pick a poem, fragment, or even a line from something you’ve written before. It can also be a public-domain text or a favorite quote. The idea is to have a “layer” that will carry the echoes of the past.

2. Scrape, Layer, Transform

• Highlight words, phrases, or lines that catch your attention.
• Begin layering new lines on top. These lines can complement, question, or even contradict the original.
• Don’t erase everything — let fragments peek through, visually or in meaning.

3. Dialogue Across Time

As you write, ask yourself:

• What does this text say to me now?
• How has my perspective changed since I first wrote it?
• What new meanings emerge when past and present collide?

4. Play With Form

Palimpsest poetry doesn’t have to be linear. Try:

• Staggered lines or angled text
• Writing in margins or along page edges
• Repeating words or phrases
• Using white space as a layer in itself

5. Reflect and Renew

• Read your poem aloud.
• Notice how old and new lines interact.
• Sometimes a line you almost erased becomes the heart of the new poem — that’s the magic of the palimpsest.

Example Ideas to Spark You

• Take a childhood poem you wrote and rewrite it now — what’s changed?
• Overlay a line from a favorite poet (public domain is fine) and respond to it, or build a conversation around it.
• Use a journal page or a diary entry from years ago; lay a new poem over it, responding to your younger self.
• Mix in a news snippet or a personal story and layer poetic lines on top.

h/t, References, and Further Reading

• Palimpsest Poetry – The Greys Court Challenge (YPN)
• The Friday Poem’s Palimpsest post and
• One from The Poetry Lab
• Tatters & the Selvage Edge: A Palimpsestic Consideration of H.D.’s Poetics (The Poetry Foundation)
• And this one from VCA Studio
• Have a look at Douglas Kearney’s poem Afrofuturism to get one idea of how you could do this.

My Attempts of Layering and Playing with the Palimpsest

I used this poem I wrote during NaPoWriMo a couple of years ago (Apr 2022), and I have two versions here.

The first version below. While I tried to write over it digitally, it proved a little difficult. I will have to write the poem down on paper and then erase lightly and write over the words but this time chose to shift the words a bit instead. So the new version – in orange – could be a standalone poem by itself, inspired by the previous one….

And this one, with responses to my previous lines, kind of talking to my past self.

Recently

On My Blog and On the Homefront

My recent posts (since the last scribblings, as always)

• From Magic Whiteboards to Wild Robots: Fun Finds for the Classroom
• Sunday Scribblings #237: Circles of Family Life and Love: Catena Rondo

On the homefront, not much. It has been a busy week but also a short one as I ended up having a four day weekend with Monday before Veteran’s Day also declared a holiday for where I work. So did some chores and just took it easy this past weekend. Then came the rains.

Upcoming

On My Blog and On the Homefront

The rains continue this coming week so we will be indoors for most of the week

Celebrations

Literary Celebrations (close-to-it also!)

• Literary birthdays this week include: Christopher Paolini on the 17th of November; Maggie Stiefvater and Margaret Atwood on Nov 18th; Ruta Sepetys on Nov 19th; Taylor Jenkins Reid and Nadine Gordimer on the 20th of November; Voltaire on Nov 21st; George Eliot on the 22nd of Nov; Nirad Chaudhuri and Robert Towne on Nov 23rd;
• November 23rd is Fibonacci Day, so write a Fib poem.

Foodie Celebrations

• The 17th with National Baklava Day, and it is also National Homemade Bread Day
• Followed by Apple Cider Day on the 18th
• Then comes National Carbonated Beverage With Caffeine Day on November 19th
• While the 20th is National Peanut butter Fudge Day (yum!)
• Next up, it is National Stuffing Day and National Gingerbread Cookie Day on the 21st of November
• And Nov 22nd is National Cranberry Relish Day (can you see a pattern here? getting ready for the Thanksgiving week ahead)!
• Followed by National Cashew Day, National Eat a Cranberry Day, and National Espresso Day on the 23rd of November.

Other Celebrations and Observations

• It is National Take A Hike Day on the 17th of November, so please do take a hike. Step outside and find your nearest hiking spot. I am glad we have many, but the weather does not look hike-friendly.
• The 18th of November celebrates Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse’s birthdays! Is this a literary celebration? Kind of, I think.
• The 19th is National Play Monopoly Day, so I should dust my monopoly board and use it.
• While November 20th is National Absurdity Day, so go ahead and embrace some absurd!
• Followed by World Hello Day and World Television Day on the 21st of November.
• November 22nd is Go For A Ride Day and  Love Your Freckles Day; and being the Saturday before Thanksgiving, it is also Family Volunteer Day
• Then the 23rd observes Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day

Wrapped Up: My Sunday Scribblings

So dear reader, you have reached the end of this Sunday Scribblings! As always, I welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions about this post And, of course, do let me know if you plan to celebrate any of these mentioned celebrations this coming week/month?

Linking this to the Sunday Post over at the Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday Salon.