I recently came across this blog post about book spine poetry. From an aesthetic standpoint, I’ve always loved the way books look together on a bookshelf—the diversity in book jacket colors, title fonts, and book sizes is like art in itself. But this post made me think about taking it a step further: if you lay books on their sides and stack them, the titles can become words or lines in a collective poem. I took apart my entire bookshelf at home last night in an attempt to construct some of my own. Thought I’d share below. Try it!

Poem 1
 

 
Strike sparks
crush
electric light.
Everything is illuminated.

Poem 2

March
out of Africa,
outside history,
open city,
home.

Poem 3

Never let me go
away.
The wild iris,
the maytrees,
a convergence of birds.

Poem 4
 

My life in France
when everything changed,
bright lights big city,
open city.
Tender is the night,
Man walks into a room,
the passion,
a woman in charge.

Poem 5

Ten thousand saints
sing you home
extremely loud and incredibly close. 

Poem 6

Rescue
Jesus’s son
in the garden of beasts.
Signs and wonders,
as I lay dying.
The history of love,
written on the body.