The author was invited as a teaching artist into a first-grade classroom in New York City to teach a 14-session poetry residency culminating in an anthology of student writing. They began by sitting together on a carpet by the interactive whiteboard and read aloud several examples of "I wish" poems from Kenneth Koch's (1970) wonderful book, "Wishes, Lies, and Dreams." The students are excited and right away want to share their own wishes. This article considers the principles, possibilities, and sociopolitical implications of poetic erasure as a literacy practice. The author uses new materialist theories to undo the myth of the "blank" page in relation to school reading and writing practices.