Try This: Book Spine Poetry
Listening to your life,
torch the simple truth.
Risking everything,
love always
the imperfect paradise
of gravity & angels.
Love a cut-up, a collage, a literary re-mix? Me, too!
Inspired by artist Nina Katchadourian's Sorted Books project [via Brain Pickings] I searched my shelves and assembled titles for the spine scramble above. And in the process I rediscovered several loved-but-forgotten books:
Listening to Your Life
daily meditations by Frederick Buechner
Torch
novel by Cheryl Strayed
The Simple Truth
poems by Philip Levine
Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation
edited by Roger Housden
Love Always
novel by Ann Beattie
The Imperfect Paradise
poems by Linda Pastan
Of Gravity & Angels
poems by Jane Hirshfield
Book spine poems are fun — and addictive. I bet you can't try just one!


Reader Comments (4)
I hate being stuck here at work, so far from my bookshelves. I'm anxious to try this out.
Have you books at work? That could yield some groovy corporate poems! (Or take a break and sneak to the bookstore, the library, the newsstand . . .) Let me know what you find.
I saw that on Brain Pickings too and thought that it was cool. Love the way yours came out, and am now inspired to do something now! Been needing to re-arrange my shelves anyway. ;-)
Val, yes, do try one! Let me know how it goes.