There is beauty and writing in everything, and the world around us is an excellent source of poetry if you take the time to see it… A lot of time and energy goes into selecting a book title, for example. It must encapsulate the novel yet leave desirable mystery, it must sound intriguing, it must be a piece of art all on its own.
This week’s writing prompt is a poetic exercise in finding beauty in your bookshelf.
Book Spine Poetry
The idea of book spine poetry began in 1993 with artist Nina Katchadourian’s Sorted Books project, with a recent online resurgence from people having a go at home. We thought this would be the perfect writing prompt to get your creativity flowing, especially when you’re not in the working mood.
This is a kind of poetry that even writers who devoutly protest they “are not poets” can have a bit of fun with. Scour your bookshelf for inspiration and put some pretty words together. It’s as simple as that. Here’s one we tried ourselves:
It turns out that this writing prompt is trickier than it first appears, but the scope for creation is wide open and it’s a quick and playful exercise that really makes you think about sentence structure and deeper meanings within words.
Share your book spine poetry with us on Facebook – we’d love to see what you come up with! And don’t forget to check out the rest of our writing prompts for more inspiring challenges. Happy writing!