Every year Travis Jonkers, at 100 Scope Notes, puts out the call for spine poetry. He creates a gallery of all submissions. The concept is to create a poem using only the spines of books stacked upon each other.
It is a delightful time to browse through the titles on my bookshelves to see what I can create. It puts titles in a whole new light when you are searching for a particular part of speech to complete the poem. If you look long enough, hard enough, you will find all types of inspiration. One day I may even go to the library to create my poems, but for now I’ll play with the books on my shelves.
Here are my submissions for this year:
Love both of these. This is always such a fun exercise — and a delightful sneak peek onto someone’s book shelf.
Cathy
Both of these spine poems are great. I have tried doing these a few times, and never feel like I get a clear succinct message. You, however, rocked these!
I love creating spine poetry. Your choices are stellar! We did spine poetry with my students this week!
You’ve inspired me to try again – I scoured my class library in an attempt to create my first spine poem – with no luck. This encourages me – so creative.
Every time you post one of these, I say I’m going to try it. I still haven’t. Maybe soon!
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVED the 2nd one. Just wonderful!!!
You are a pro at spine poems elsie! These are great! I am looking forward to digging into my shelves, and the many kids shelves, to see what goodies await me. Thanks for the inspiration!
I got his ‘call’ but still haven’t done it yet, Elsie. These are wonderful, both creative & unique. I think I have all those PD books, too! Maybe many of us do! Thanks for telling about the spine poems. There’ll be a rush now, I bet.
Love your poems! Especially the second!
A book spine poem at least once during March, thank you for the reminder. I like that you created two poems. The first one made me think of a rainy day, the second one is a power boost for writers.
I always forget about this. You are a master at creating these. I think your personal library rivals some public libraries! Well done, my friend!
I love these, and can’t wait to try some soon. I remember making a mess of my bookshelves last year, but it was great fun!
Just might try to sneak into the library this afternoon…
I like the two poems in celebration of two parts of your life – teaching and reading. Nice!
I love your spine poems! I’ve tried a few of my own, but they are pretty tricky. It looks so easy, but just like any type of found poetry, you’ve gotta work with what you’ve got! 🙂
These are great! I was not aware of Spine Poetry. I will need to share this idea with some of my former colleagues. With my collection of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and James Patterson books I am not sure what kind of poem I would come up with.
This is cool. I have to try it. Thank you for sharing.
I am always amazed at the spine poems people create!!! I’ve tried but well let me just say have not posted any . . . You may have inspired me to keep trying 😉
These are perfect! I have tried this a couple of times but it seems like a title or two (that I must have) is always missing! I need to try again!
I love these! I have a few on slate for my poetry Monday. Thanks for the link and your great poems.