Figure and ground

A flat poem names everything with the same light. There is no foreground. There is nothing staying behind to hold it.

Figure is what stays in front: the gesture, the object, the action that can be seen. Ground is what remains and lets that be cut out. If the ground also shouts, the figure is lost.

The exercise is short. Take a text and decide what is named and what is left. Rewrite it with a distinguishable foreground and ground.

It is not decoration. It is relief.

Source: the mini workshop "Figure and ground."